South Sudan: 47 LRA rebels surrender in Yei, Central Equatoria

From Sudan Radio Service, 03 November 2009:
LRA rebels surrender in Yei

(Yei) - More than forty Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army surrendered to authorities in Yei county, Central Equatoria state last week.

The Commissioner of Yei county, David Lokonga confirmed that pockets of LRA rebels have been handing themselves in since September this year.

[David lokonga 1 -Eng/Arabic]: “Starting from September 22nd, some of the L-R-A have surrendered themselves to the authority of Yei county. On October 7th, some of the rebels including two officers surrender themselves to us, on October 22nd some more LRA surrender themselves again. The last group surrender themselves on October 30th including the wife of their commander called Arob. This means the number of the LRA soldiers that have handed themselves to Yei county is forty seven. We would like to urge the rest of the remaining rebels in the LRA who are still in the forest to emulate their colleagues and end theses atrocities.”

Lokong’a added that most of the LRA soldiers who surrendered expressed frustration and exhaustion over their movement’s unclear vision and activities.

He said the arrested LRA who have surrendered will be handed over to their respective communities.

[David lokong’a 2 -Eng/Arabic]: “We and the Uganda government have agreed to hand over these people to their communities. After they surrendered themselves to the SPLA and the UPDF, I will then hand the Ugandans over to Ugandan government and the Sudanese will remain with me. We have some from Wonduruba and we have handed them to their community.”

That was the commissioner of Yei County, David Lokonga talking to Sudan radio service from Yei on Tuesday.