afrol News, 2 July - Southern Sudan Vice President Riek Machar has ordered a military attack on armed people outside the Ugandan rebel assembly points in its massive campaign to crack down attacks on civilians.

Mr Machar announcement followed a government order on Ugandan troops to leave Sudanese territory on Monday, blaming it on recent civilian's attacks at the border with Uganda.

The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) - who are currently in Sudan hunting rebels from the Uganda and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - are accused of causing a chaotic situation in the country, which led to death of 28 people in June.

"The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is under instruction that anybody holding arms must be attacked," Mr Machar told Juba parliament. Mr Machar, who is also the Chief Mediator in LRA peace talks, warned that any armed groups to be found loitering around would be apprehended by the SPLA, adding that the SPLA forces will continue to deploy to protect the citizens in the LRA-affected areas.

Mr Machar who has commissioned a committee to investigate clashes last month in Nyongwa, near the Ugandan border, found that members of the UPDF were involved in the attacks.

The report presented before the Juba parliament revealed that about 30 gunmen raided a homestead at Nyongwa village on 19 June, looted food and household goods and abducted Jino Moga Mandara.

Southern Sudan has allowed Ugandan forces up to 100 kilometres inside its territory to pursue members of Uganda's LRA rebels since 2002, in a bid to end two decades of civil war in the country.

Uganda rebel talks, which resumed in 2006, reached a stalemate in April this year when brutal LRA leader Joseph Kony refused to sign a peace deal saying the International Criminal Court should withdraw warrants of arrest on him and other LRA leaders.

Meanwhile, the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) has passed a resolution condemning the atrocities committed by the Uganda rebel group in the country. The Southern Sudan lawmakers expressed their support to the peaceful settlement of the LRA's war and urged the Southern Sudanese government to continue mediating the process and persuading the LRA leadership to sign the Final Peace Agreement (FPA).

Uganda's two-decade civil war displaced 2 million people and destabilised parts of oil-producing south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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