16.12.10 Nineteen agencies call for action to prevent another Christmas massacre by Africa’s most brutal rebel group
The international community needs to act to prevent another Christmas
massacre and the almost daily killing sprees by the most brutal and
long-running rebel group in Africa said aid
agencies in a new report released today. Massacres meted out by the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) against remote communities in Sudan, the Central African
Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past year
have been among the worst in the LRA’s 20-year bloody history.
New figures show that over the past two years the LRA has become the
most deadly militia in the DRC. In the last year alone more than 1,000 people
have been killed or abducted in nearly 200 separate attacks in two remote
districts of DRC – almost four attacks a week across an area approximately the
size of the UK.
On Christmas Eve 2008 and over the following three weeks, 865 women, men
and children were savagely beaten to death and hundreds more abducted by the
LRA in north-eastern DRC and southern Sudan. Last Christmas, between 14
and 17 December 2009, LRA commanders oversaw the killing of more than 300
people. These attacks have largely gone unnoticed by the outside world.
“It is unbelievable
that world leaders continue to tolerate brutal violence against some of the
most isolated villages in central Africa and that this has been allowed to
continue for more than 20 years,” said Marcel Stoessel, Head of Oxfam in DRC.
“This Christmas families in north-eastern Congo will live in fear of yet
another massacre, despite the presence of the world’s largest peacekeeping
mission.”
The LRA is highly mobile and attacks women as they perform their daily
tasks – fetching water or tending to their fields – and children as they return
from school. The LRA abducts, mutilates, rapes and kills women, men and
children, using extreme violence against the most vulnerable.
A new report, ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past’ launched today by 19 humanitarian
and human rights organisations says the safety and welfare of women, men and
children across the vast LRA-affected area must finally be given the decisive
attention it demands.
“The LRA is
mostly comprised of abducted or coerced adults and children who have been
forced to commit horrific acts against their community, making it impossible
for them to return home,” said Mark Waddington CEO of War Child UK. “Children
are forced to kill and rape, and many are used as ‘sex slaves’.
“This must not be allowed to continue. The international community must
work harder to implement the recommendations in the report and promote the safe
release of LRA abductees and support their reintegration back into their
families and daily life, particularly girls, who are often neglected in such
processes.”
Previous efforts to apprehend the LRA have failed, the report says. In
December 2008 Operation “Lightning Thunder”, a military offensive against the
LRA, failed to capture any senior rebel commanders. The offensive only prompted
brutal retaliations against communities and pushed the LRA further from their
native Uganda
across an area 20 times larger than before.
Recent signs of diplomatic commitment from the African Union and United States
must provide tangible answers that protect the population from violence and
find peaceful solutions, agencies say. That should include focusing on the
realities of national armies' capacity to keep civilians safe from the LRA, one
of the major weaknesses in strategies to date.
“As a regional problem the LRA is no one
government’s responsibility,” said Stoessel.
“The United Nations Security Council has long neglected to put the LRA as a
specific agenda item and has failed to respond seriously to atrocities.
“The
international community and regional governments must work together so that
families can finally tend to their fields and sleep in their homes free from
fear.”
– Ends –
For more
information contact
· Rolf van der Maas (Oxfam
Novib), rolf.van.der.maas@oxfamnovib.nl, +31 (0) 683
565 227
· Anna Ridout (Oxfam),
aridout@oxfam.org.uk, +44 (0)7766 443506
· Aldine Furio, aldine.furio@crisisaction.org, +33 668 121 153
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. ‘Ghosts of
Christmas Past’ is launched today. It is produced by organisations working in
the affected countries or advocacy groups with a long-standing commitment to
resolving the LRA threat: Broederlijk Delen,
Cafod, Christian Aid, Conciliation Resources, Cordaid,
Danish Refugee Council, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Intersos,
Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Pax Christi Flanders, Peace Direct, Refugees
International, Resolve, Society For Threatened Peoples, Tearfund, Trocaire, War Child UK, World vision.
2. Embargoed copies of the report are available in English and French upon request.
3. Agency spokespeople are available for interviews in English, French and German.
4. Interviews with people in LRA-affected areas of DRC and CAR are available.
5. Sign a petition
to help make families in central Africa safer
this Christmas at http://oxf.am/Z3W
6. According to new
OCHA figures, in the last year alone more than 1,000 people, including
children, have been killed or abducted in almost 200 separate attacks in Haut-
and Bas-Uélé, DRC.
7. Since September
2008, the LRA has killed more than 2,300 people and abducted more than 3,000.
8. It is estimated
that 20% of the children abducted are forced to fight, 80% are used to do
forced labour and 100% of the girls are raped.
9. The DRC is home
to the largest peacekeeping force in the world, yet only 850 of the 18,500-strong
mission are in LRA-affected zones.
10. Oxfam is
currently assisting more than 120,000 people affected by LRA violence in Haut-Uélé,
province Orientale, DRC.
11. A candle vigil
will take place on 14 December in a number of US cities (including Washington
DC, New York and Boston) to commemorate last year’s LRA massacre – for
more information please contact Amber Palmer at Resolve on +1-202-213-3388.
12. See also latest
report from Resolve on the LRA: ‘From promise to peace: A blueprint for
President Obama’s LRA strategy’ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2010.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/JDUN-89W54Z-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf