Survivors of Lord Resistance Army (LRA) Atrocities in Yambio Demand Justice  

Survivors of Lord Resistance Army (LRA) Atrocities in Yambio Demand Justice  

By Baraka John  

Survivors of Lord Resistance Army (LRA) atrocities have demanded justice for barbaric acts committed by the elements of Uganda’s rebels in the areas of Yambio and Nzara Counties in the Western Equatoria State of South Sudan.

The LRA led by Joseph Kony enrooted to parties of Western Equatoria State in 2007 and stayed there up to 2018. The army was reported to have caused massive destruction in the communities in those areas.   

In late February this year, 2023, communities, survivors, and families of those killed during the insurgency of Uganda’s LRA gathered to commemorate the lives of their dear ones killed, rapped, and abducted for good.

The commemorations were held in Birisi, Gangura, and Sakure with the help of the invisible children through a project named “Unity in Truth”.

During the commemoration event, the survivors in a joint statement had called on both the government of South Sudan and the international community to rise up and launch an investigation into the atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed by the LRA in the last eleven years. 

A coalition of churches known as the Inter-Church committee had managed to identify some survivors of the LRA atrocities and offer them mini trauma healing sessions as they reunite with their communities.

Peace committees formed by the inter-Church committee in the areas of Birisi, Gangura, and Sakure had documented close to 150 people killed by the LRA in what the eye witnesses described as “mass killing”.  

:In Birisi alone, 78 people were murdered, abduction of 34 people including 17 young men who were taken for good, 33 women and girls were raped, two primary schools were burned down, three Primary health care units were vandalized and burned to ashes, two Churches were also burned down and hundreds of houses were set ablaze”,  shows the document.

A religious leader who preferred anonymity said “We are not Ugandan, why did LRA come to our land and killed us? Let justice prevail, honestly and sincerely speaking justice should prevail against the malicious barbarous actions of LRA. What I would like to say is, those people who have power let really help us by bringing all the perpetrators to account”.       

The clergyman has appealed to well-wishers to help construct schools, hospitals and Churches in areas where atrocities and vandalism were committed by the LRA. He said these institutions will help the orphans and survivors of the LRA to have access to basic services.  

According to the survivors and community where mass atrocities were committed by the LRA between 2007-2018, the State and national governments remain mute on the crimes perpetrated by the Ugandan rebels.  

They demanded the national government to hold into account the rebel leader as to why he encroached into South Sudan and committed gross human rights violations.

The LRA encroached into some parts of South Sudan in 2007 specifically in Koji keji of Central Equatoria State, proceeded to Nabanga of Ibba County, Gangura payam, Birisi of Yambio County, and Sakure payam of Nzara County all in Western Equatoria State.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2009 the LRA, a Ugandan-based militia attacked some areas in the Western Equatoria State which led to the displacement of 25,000 people. Almost 10 times that number has been displaced by LRA attacks there since late 2008 and the group is blamed for some 200 deaths in the state in 2009.

Many of the displaced - more than 3,000 from Sangua and Basukangbi alone - have gathered in towns such as Nzara and survive on wild food sources such as leaves and fruit, according to the findings of a multi-agency assessment mission, which also found that the displaced lacked adequate sanitation, drinking water and health services.

Around the same time, the Enough Project, an advocacy organization based in Washington DC, also issued a report about the LRA's increasing threat to civilians because of the lack of any "meaningful military force" to challenge the group.

Michael Poulino, a community leader at Bazungua Boma told Sudan tribune in 2007 that the LRA rebels first attacked Yambio in March 2006, as efforts to negotiate a peace deal to end their two-decade bush war against the Ugandan government broke down at the first stage.  

On December 14^th, 2008, a Ugandan-led multinational force, including Congolese and South Sudanese soldiers, launched an offensive aiming to capture the rebels’ reclusive leader Joseph Kony.

Instead, the operation splintered the rebels into smaller groups that are now attacking villages, slaughtering civilians, raping women, and kidnapping children for use as sex slaves and child soldiers.