UN Emergency Coordinator condemns deadly attacks on aid workers in northern Uganda

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland today condemned a series of rebel attacks on humanitarian aid workers in northern Uganda, where two people were killed and four others injured.

"This is a tragedy for those who have been killed, for their families and for their organizations. It is unconscionable that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is carrying out these vicious attacks on unarmed humanitarian workers," Mr. Egeland, who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General heading the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.

"The people of northern Uganda are heavily dependent on humanitarian aid and access to them is already precarious. These attacks threaten the provision of life-saving assistance to nearly 1.7 million people," he added.

Gunmen identified by witnesses as members of the LRA carried out three separate attacks on the humanitarian aid workers in the past two days, OCHA said.

Earlier today, one of two unescorted staff members from the non-governmental organization (NGO) Caritas was shot dead in an ambush apparently staged by LRA members in Kitgum district. One fled, but the other was shot and killed while trying to escape, according to an eyewitness.

In Pader District, LRA rebels ambushed aid workers from the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development, another NGO, killing one person and critically injuring two in a vehicle clearly marked with the agency's emblem.

Today's murders follow yesterday's attack on a vehicle belonging to the Christian Children's Fund and identified as such in Okwango, Lira District. Two of the fund's staff members were injured, one seriously, as the assailants reportedly sprayed the vehicle with bullets.