Uganda Rebels Kill Eight in Grenade Attack

Kampala, Uganda - Eight people were killed and 52 others injured in two separate incidences when rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army or LRA operating in northern Uganda attacked night revellers in Gulu municipality on the country's 38th independence anniversary Monday.
Police spokesman Eric Naigambi said Wednesday that the rebels cut through a fence at about midnight Monday and entered the dancing hall at Opit Travellers in Gulu, where people were dancing.

The attackers hurled two hand grenades into the fully packed hall killing two people and injuring 48 others. Five are in critical conditions.

Naigambi said the rebels had earlier killed six people and injured four others at Customs Corner, Kirombe, on the suburbs of Gulu, before attacking the hall. A girl was electrocuted the same night when she touched a live electric wire on her way to the discotheque.

Reports reaching Kampala from Gulu Wednesday say the situation in the municipality remains tense as hundreds of people flock to hospitals to check for their missing relatives. Gulu Mayor Patrick Paklaki has declared three days of mourning.

Gulu Diocese Anglican Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng who visited the scenes of the attacks and survivors in hospitals condemned the attack.

"Any fighting which turns onto the people should be condemned because it serves no purpose," he said. "That is not war for a purpose. It must stop. Whether it is the LRA or not, they must know that they have done the worst crime to mankind."

The Gulu assistant resident district commissioner, Semei Okwir, said the attack was carried out by a group of LRA rebels who infiltrated the municipality through Patuka and the closed Lacor road to avoid the army.

He described the attacks as most cowardly and called for calm.

The LRA, headed by Joseph Kony, has bases in southern Sudan from where the rebels periodically carry raids into Uganda.

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