UN condemns deadly attack on camp for displaced persons in northern Uganda

The United Nations team in Uganda today condemned an attack by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northern part of the country that left 39 people dead and another 17 injured.

The UN country team went to the Pagak camp yesterday, some 24 kilometres from Gulu, and discovered that 544 huts had been burned and fully a third of the camp's total population of about 11,000 people has left to nearby camps and Gulu town.

The UN is monitoring the situation and will head back to the site in the coming days. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the LRA attacked Pagak camp Sunday evening, killing and wounding scores of people and abducting others. This follows similar attacks against civilians of Barlonyo on 21 February and Odek on 29 April.

Escalating its 18-year rebellion against the Government, the LRA in recent months has increasingly targeted civilians, spreading fear among hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Uganda's northern region. Children and women, in particular, have suffered enormously, and, according to OCHA, the rebels have abducted more than 10,000 children since June 2002, the highest number since the insurgency began.

Overall, the number of persons forced from their homes by fighting and in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection has increased to over 1.6 million from 800,000. OCHA said it is extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian aid outside the main northern and eastern towns without the use of military escorts, and the fragile security situation in northern Uganda has made its difficult to maintain a humanitarian presence there.

The UN has launched a $109 million inter-agency appeal to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations in 2004. With the year nearly half over, only some $ 22 million has been donated - just 20 per cent of the funds needed.