WORRIED? LRA’s Maj. Okirot chats with John W’ Teng and LRA delegation chief Ojul at Juba Raha Hotel yesterday

By Alfred Wasike

HUNDREDS of heavily armed LRA combatants who have been assembling at Owiny-Kibul in the last few weeks have mysteriously disappeared.

“By last night the LRA who were assembled had dispersed and our intelligence shows that the bulk of them are moving westwards towards the River Nile,” UPDF spokesperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye told local and international journalists yesterday.

More than 50 journalists and diplomats from Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Ireland, South Africa and Rwanda were barred from advancing to Owiny-Kibul to verify the LRA assembly. They spent a night at Pajok, 53 miles from the assembly area.

The UPDF said they could not guarantee security of the journalists and the diplomats now that the LRA were at large.

“We are also receiving intelligence reports that another group led by Odhiambo are moving eastwards and we suspect that they are trying to infiltrate West Nile and use it as an operation zone,” he said.

The O/C Pajok Police Station, Joseph Aboda, said more than 600 LRA armed with automatic weapons had assembled at Owiny-Kibul in the past few days.

“It is my Police Station that was providing security at Owiny-Kibul for the LRA. Now all of a sudden they have disappeared but our people are tired of war,” he said.