South Sudan says Uganda rebels kill 38 in attacks

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Ugandan rebels have killed 38 south Sudanese villagers since Christmas in the latest of a wave of attacks that have left hundreds of people dead in the region, a Sudanese official said Thursday.

Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more attacks by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters.

The guerrillas returned to their murderous ways after a brief lull that ended when regional militaries launched an offensive against their Congolese hideouts in mid-December.

"They have caused unprecedented havoc, killing almost 40 people between December 24 and January 1," Kumba told Reuters. "We are now a target area. This is more than hunger. This is revenge."

The LRA's elusive commander Joseph Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for their role in one of Africa's longest-running wars.

Some 2 million civilians were displaced in northern Uganda and the conflict has also destabilized neighboring parts of volatile northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and oil-producing southern Sudan.

LRA fighters killed 20 people Friday in a raid on a park ranger station in the Congolese town of Negero, local officials said, while U.N. officials say LRA fighters killed nearly 200 people during three days of raids in DRC in late December.

Catholic charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 Congolese died in a series of Christmas week massacres.

Forces led by Uganda and including Congolese and south Sudanese troops began bombing LRA bases in Congo's Garamba National Park on December 14 after Kony again failed to sign a final peace agreement with the Ugandan government.

Ugandan and Congolese officials have said the offensive succeeded in destroying most of the LRA's hideouts in Garamba. But the coalition forces have so far failed to find Kony.

Attacks by his fighters in Sudan's Western Equatoria have been particularly brutal. Dozens of people were hacked to death with axes and machetes, Kumba said, pregnant women had been disemboweled and a baby was smashed against a tree.

Soldiers rescued one man who was thrown into a fire by the rebels, she said, adding south Sudanese troops were doing all they could to stop the guerrillas entering from Congo.

"But they are breaking through because the border is vast," Kumba said.

(Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)