After killing of Ugandan relief workers, charities withdraw

Sub-Saharan Africa - Uganda
27 Oct 2005 - ReliefWeb

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International relief organizations suspended operations in Uganda's war-ravaged northern region after two Ugandan relief workers were killed in rebel ambushes over a 24-hour period, relief workers said Wednesday night.

"We have suspended operations until the situation normalizes," Christine Schmitz, country head of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland for Uganda, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

She said MSF had suspended operations in Kitgum and Lira districts "because we fear for the security of our staff and the people displaced by the war."

The killings on Wednesday were blamed on the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerillas in Kitgum district, which borders the Sudan, and in neighbouring Pader district.

The victims were a relief worker with a Catholic relief group, Caritus, and a worker with Christian Children Fund.

Another ambush in Lira district further south left four people injured, according to Emma Naylor who heads the Kitgum office of another charity, Oxfam, which has also suspended operations until the situation normalizes.

"We are extremely scared because such attacks which occurred in the last 24 hours have never occurred before," she said in a phone interview. "We are worried for the security of our personnel and that of the displaced people."

She said the 2 million people who need food and are normally helped by the organizations will go hungry.

Ugandan Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Shaban Bantariza, who confirmed the attacks, said the United Nations office for humanitarian activities (OCHA) has also pulled out its staff from the region. U.N. officials could not be reached for comment.

He said however that the attacks had given the military "an opportunity to pursue (the guerrillas) because they were hiding."

The LRA has been waging a guerrilla war in northern Uganda from bases in Sudan for 19 years, displacing 1.5 million people from their homes and kidnapping thousands of children who are pressed into service as soldiers and prostitutes.

The civilians who depend on relief aid live in makeshift huts in over 200 camps dotted in the region.

"Many agencies have pulled out and we call upon the Ugandan government to put security at the top of its priorities for both the relief workers and the displaced people. We are worried about the vulnerable people," Naylor said.

© 2005 ReliefWeb