Group: Sudan army supporting fugitive warlord Kony

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony recently found safe haven in territory controlled by Sudan, a watchdog group said Friday, accusing the Sudanese military of offering aid to commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army.

The U.S.-based group Resolve said in a new report that Kony recently directed killings from an enclave protected by the Sudanese military. Until early this year, according to the report, Kony and some of his commanders were operating in Kafia Kingi, a disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border where African Union troops tasked with catching Kony don't have access.

"The enclave is currently controlled by Sudan, and numerous eyewitness reports indicate that elements of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Kafia Kingi have actively sheltered senior LRA commanders there and provided them with limited material support," the report said. "According to LRA defectors and other sources, LRA leader Joseph Kony himself first traveled to the Kafia Kingi enclave in 2010. He returned to Kafia Kingi in 2011 and was present there throughout parts of 2012."

In a series of makeshift camps near a Sudanese army barracks, Kony "continued to direct LRA attacks against civilians in neighboring countries and issue new orders for LRA fighters."

The Ugandan military — with support from U.S. military advisers — is the driving force behind the hunt for Kony. Ugandan army spokesman Col. Felix Kulayigye said the report vindicates Uganda's contention that the LRA is a beneficiary of Sudanese support. Ugandan army officials said late last year they believed Kony was hiding in Sudan-controlled territory, although now they believe he has moved elsewhere.

"We always knew Kony was hiding in Kafia Kingi," he said. "The way forward is that no country should be hiding a wanted criminal."

Kony watchdog groups are concerned that Kony can retreat to Kafia Kingi whenever his pursuers get close. Resolve said it has satellite imagery of the now-abandoned camp where Kony was reportedly seen in late 2012. The warlord is no longer believed to be hiding there, the report noted, saying he may have crossed to Central African Republic.

Sudan has consistently denied charges it supports Kony, a warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United States government is evaluating the report that the LRA is operating in the Kafia Kingi region, said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell Friday.

"The U.S. and the international community as a whole would take very seriously any credible evidence of support or safe haven being provided to the LRA," said Ventrell, citing a December statement at the U.N. expressing concern about the LRA's possible presence in Kafia Kingi.

"We continue to discuss our concerns about the whereabouts of Joseph Kony with all governments in the region, including with the government of Sudan, and we have encouraged Sudan to cooperate with regional efforts to counter the LRA," Ventrell added. "We're in a position now where two of the top five commanders are gone, the number of people killed by the LRA has gone down by 66 percent, and defections continue. So our pressure on the LRA continues."

Kony's LRA, which originated in Uganda in the 1980s as a popular tribal uprising against the government, has become notorious for recruiting children as fighters and forcing girls to be sex slaves. Military pressure forced the LRA out of Uganda in 2005, and the rebels scattered across parts of central Africa. LRA fighters are now believed to be operating mainly in the jungles of Congo and Central African Republic.

Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, the top commander of African forces hunting for Kony, recently said he believed Kony had crossed to Central African Republic, where last month rebels deposed a president and expressed hostility toward foreign troops operating in the country. The lack of cooperation from the new government there forced the African Union to suspend military operations against Kony, who over the years has taken advantage of porous borders and weak governments to regroup.

The LRA is vastly diminished from previous years, and its forces now don't exceed 500, according Brig. Olum. Many of Kony's fighters have defected in the past year, and some of his top lieutenants have been captured or killed in combat. Last year an LRA commander believed to be Kony's military strategist was seized by Ugandan troops.

Sudan's support for Kony threatens progress made against the LRA, said the new report by Resolve.

"Unless addressed, it will also enable LRA leaders to outlast current counter-LRA operations," the report said. "Though international diplomats and military officials working to stop LRA attacks privately acknowledge recent LRA movement in Kafia Kingi, they have not adopted realistic strategies to prevent further support from Sudan to Kony's forces."

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Sudan leader to make first visit to South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A government official says Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will travel to South Sudan on Friday.

The visit will be al-Bashir's first to South Sudan since the country peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011.

South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Thursday that the two heads of state want to prove to the world that the two countries plan to live peacefully together. Al-Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir will discuss how to implement security agreements the two countries signed in September and the status of the contested region of Abyei.

Bashir had planned to travel to South Sudan in April 2012 but cancelled the visit after South Sudan's military seized the disputed oil-producing town of Heglig. The two leaders are likely to discuss their co-dependent oil industries.

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5 UN troops, 7 others killed in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Armed rebels that South Sudan believes are backed by Sudan opened fire on a U.N. convoy on Tuesday, killing five U.N. peacekeepers from India and at least seven civilians, officials said.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, blamed the attack on fighters led by David Yau Yau, a rebel leader South Sudan's military has battled for months.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, said in a statement that five peacekeepers and seven civilians working with the U.N. mission were killed. She said at least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured and some remain unaccounted for.

Aguer said the attack took place on a convoy traveling between the South Sudanese towns of Pibor and Bor on Tuesday morning.

"Definitely this attack was carried out by David Yau Yau's militia," Aguer said. "They have been launching ambushes even on the SPLA for about six months now," he said, using the acronym for South Sudan's military.

South Sudan ended decades of civil war with Sudan in 2005 and peacefully formed its own country in 2011. But the south is still plagued by internal violence and shaky relations with Sudan. Leaders in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, deny that they are arming Yau Yau.

Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of India's Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, India, said the convoy, which included 32 Indian soldiers, was attacked by rebels in Gurmukh in the volatile state of Jonglei. He said the casualties are being brought to the capital of South Sudan, Juba, and the injured will be sent to the U.N. mission hospital. The Indian embassy will work with the U.N. to bring the bodies back to India, he said.

India has about 2,200 Indian army personnel in South Sudan. They are in two battalions. One is based in Jonglei and the other is in Malakal, in the Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

The Indian embassy said it will inform families before releasing the names of the soldiers killed.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Johnson, sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

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George reported from New Delhi. Associated Press reporter Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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South Sudan military says 163 killed in clashes

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A battle between South Sudan soldiers and rebels allegedly backed by neighboring Sudan killed 163 people, most of them rebels, government officials said Thursday.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said government forces also captured an airstrip in the town of Okello, which he claimed the rebels have been using to import most of their military supplies. Okello is in South Sudan's southeast Pibor County, where rebel leader David Yau Yau hails from.

"This airstrip has been used by Khartoum (Sudan) intelligence to transport and supply arms and ammunition to David Yau Yau. Some of the arms that were being dropped by Antanovs were captured, AK-47s. Some are broken, some are in good condition," Aguer said.

He said 143 rebels led by Yau Yau died in the battle Tuesday, and that 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.

South Sudan peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 but is still dealing with violence inside its own borders. Military battles and fights between tribes kill dozens of people with alarming frequency. After decades of war with Sudan, the country is flooded with assault rifles.

Death tolls are almost impossible to verify without months of investigations, given how remote the country is and the complete lack of infrastructure. In late December 2011 and early January 2012, cattle raid attacks between tribes killed at least 600 people in Jonglei. A government disarmament campaign afterward collected more than 10,000 weapons.

Aguer said South Sudan's military will continue to "deal with the militia group" and that it would be a matter of time before Yau Yau's rebels are cleared from Pibor County.

South Sudan accuses Sudan of arming the rebellion to block South Sudan's plans to build an oil pipeline eastward through Ethiopia to a port in Djibouti.

A dispute with Sudan over oil transit fees led South Sudan to shut down its oil industry last year and look for alternative ways to transport its crude. The two governments recently reached an agreement that is supposed to restart South Sudanese exports through Sudan's oil pipelines.

Sudan has repeatedly denied having any ties to the rebels. It accuses South Sudan, in turn, of supporting rebels in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Yau Yau first rebelled against South Sudan after he failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 2010 general elections. He accused the ruling party of rigging the vote. In 2011 he accepted an amnesty offer and was promoted to a general. But last year he fled to Sudan and started a rebellion in Pibor against South Sudan's government.

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More than 60 wounded in fighting in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 60 people have been wounded in fighting between South Sudan's army and a rebel group.

The international Red Cross says 62 people have been taken to one of their medical facilities in the last two weeks.

South Sudan's army has been battling rebels led by David Yau Yau. South Sudan accuses Sudan of supporting the rebels. Khartoum denies the allegations.

The international Red Cross's Ewan Watson said Monday that the group is seeing "fairly serious injuries" caused mostly by light weapons.

The number of deaths is not known because the area is not accessible by outside groups. The military and government did not immediately have casualty information.

Watson said many more people might be wounded that authorities don't know about.

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