afrol News, 4 March - The Ugandan Army has last night announced the arrest of Colonel Thomas Kwoyelo, the Lord Resistance Army field operations commander in its offensive against rebels in north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Col Kwoyelo, the fourth-in-command of the LRA was arrested last night in Yakuluku village, North of Duru, about 50km south of Ri-Kwangba which the army had targeted as it is LRA’s leader Joseph Kony’s headquarters.

The operation commander, Brigadier Patrick Kankiriho said Col Kwoyelo was injured in the stomach as government troops exchanged fire with his guards.

Brig Kankiriho indicated the Ugandan troops will continue to chase the rebels if they do not surrender. “We have killed 15 in the last three days,” he said.

The UPDF in December mounted a joint operation with DR Congo and South Sudanese forces to flush out the LRA, which has been based in northern DR Congo’s Garamba National Park for two years.

The operation, initially designed to last for a short period has however dragged on after the initial UPDF attacks missed LRA leader, Joseph Kony, who was supposed to be killed in air strikes.

According to local newspaper Daily Monitor, the LRA has since killed an estimated 300 civilians in indiscriminate attacks on the population in DRC.

Mr Kony had amongst others, demanded the scrapping of the ICC arrest warrants against him and his top commanders before signing the peace deal with Uganda government.

The Ugandan government has recently accused the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels of abducting children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Uganda and recruiting them in their camps.

However, the government had said a peace deal would be a better option to a lasting solution that would bring to an end nearly two decades of war in northern Uganda which has killed thousands of people and left 2 million homeless.

By staff writer

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