Talk to LRA, UN tells govt

May 11, 2005

The UN Security Council on Tuesday expressed concern over the ‘troubling humanitarian situation’ in northern Uganda and told the LRA rebels to cease hostilities and the Government to talk peace.

By Henry Mukasa and Agencies

The UN Security Council on Tuesday expressed concern over the ‘troubling humanitarian situation’ in northern Uganda and told the LRA rebels to cease hostilities and the Government to talk peace.

Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj of Denmark, the Council President for May, in a statement said the 15-member council, during a closed-door briefing by UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, had discussed the world’s greatest humanitarian challenges, all of which are in Africa.

“As regards northern Uganda, members of the council condemned the atrocities carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and called on the rebels to cease all acts of violence and enter into peace negotiations,” said Løj.

She said council members expressed hope that a peaceful solution to the conflict could be achieved and encouraged the Government to seek and facilitate such a solution.

“We’ve had atrocious massacres and mutilations of civilians in the last few weeks again,” Egeland said before briefing the council. He called the LRA “possibly the world’s most brutal insurgency group” and said unlike Sudan’s Darfur region, the issue of northern Uganda was not getting enough international attention.

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