8th November 2013
At least two people are dead after attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Ezo County, Western Equatoria State South Sudan.
Warrior Security personnel on the ground say three people were also abducted and a house set on fire.
Local officials add that property was looted as well.
Warrior Security provides security services to the United Nations Mission of South Sudan (UNMISS) in EZO.
WS security officers in Ezo say that many UNMISS officials have been evacuated; however, WS remains deployed at the site
WS officers also say that scores of civilians showed up at the gate of the UNMISS compound last Friday seeking refuge, fearing another LRA attack.
South Sudan’s army (SPLA) says it has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Western Equatoria to root out LRA fighters suspected of carrying out the attack.
SPLA spokesman Phillip Aguer says approximately 500 South Sudanese soldiers have been deployed to the region.
U.S Special Forces also spearhead a forward operating base in the area tasked with training Ugandan and South Sudanese soldiers to track LRA activities.
The attacks in Ezo come on the heels of raids in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), which have also been blamed on the LRA.
Western Equatoria State Minister of Information Charles Kisanga says "there have been reports of LRA activities around the border areas due to the fact that the new government in Central Africa is not cooperative in dealing with such matters”, which he says has allowed the LRA to regroup.
According to the U.S State Department, LRA leader and self-proclaimed religious prophet, Joseph Kony ordered the LRA to withdraw from Uganda in 2005 and 2006 and move into the border region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), and what is now South Sudan.
Even though the LRA's core group of fighters is thought to have reduced to around 200, the U.S State Department says the group "retains the capacity to cast a wide shadow across the region because of its brutality and the fear it arouses in local populations."
A report released in December last year by the United Nations blames the LRA for 278 attacks in 2011 and estimates that more than 465,000 people in CAR, the DRC and South Sudan were displaced or "living as refugees during 2011 as a result of the LRA threat."
A 2006 study funded by UNICEF estimated that at least 66,000 children and youth had been abducted by the LRA since its inception in the 1980s.