South Sudan tells Ugandan troops to leave

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - The government of South Sudan ordered Ugandan troops hunting rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to leave its territory on Monday.

South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar said the decision was intended to avoid past mistakes, saying soldiers of the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) abducted and killed a South Sudanese man during anti-LRA operations this month.

"If there are any forces in Sudan that are UPDF, these should move back to Ugandan territory," he told the South Sudanese assembly.

"If the option to fight the LRA is going to be made, (south Sudan) can handle this on its own," Machar added.

Uganda, which has had troops pursuing LRA forces in southern Sudan since 2002, said it would keep its soldiers there to stop the rebels returning to northern Uganda and threatening Ugandan security.

Uganda's military spokesman, Major Paddy Ankunda, said his government had received no formal communication telling its soldiers to leave.

"We have troops in southern Sudan under an arrangement with the government there, because the threat by LRA rebels still exists," he told Reuters.

Uganda's two-decade civil war uprooted 2 million people and destabilized parts of oil-producing south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.