Central African Republic: African troops capture junior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander
African troops captured a junior commander with the Lord’s Resistance Army and rescued 10 people, mostly children, abducted by the rebels, Uganda’s military said Tuesday, the latest blow against the rebel group in an international hunt for its fugitive leaders.
The commander — a rebel lieutenant known as Charles Okello — was seized after a firefight in Central African Republic, where Uganda-led African Union troops are hunting down the rebels in vast jungle, said Ugandan military spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda. Up to 10 civilians, seven of them children, were rescued from the rebels, he said.
African troops are being assisted by United States military advisers in the search for LRA leaders. Last month the U.S. deployed more forces to assist in the hunt for warlord Joseph Kony and other rebel commanders, more than doubling the number of American forces on the ground to 250. The U.S. also sent four CV-22 Osprey aircraft, two C-130 transport planes and two KC-135 refueling aircraft to assist the mission against the LRA.