to improve security after a Christian aid worker was shot and killed by rebels in the border area in the latest attacks against relief groups there, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday, November 9.
57-year old Collin Lee from Bermuda, who worked for the Christian relief organization International Aid Services (IAS), was shot and killed Saturday, November 5, during a failed rescue operation in Southern Sudan near the border with Uganda, officials said.
The killing was allegedly carried out by members of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), which is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government from bases in southern Sudan.
ARMED MEN
"On Saturday…at about 3:00 pm" an IAS vehicle was traveling from [the town of] Kaya to Yei in Southern Sudan" with "two international staff from Bermuda and Paraguay and a Sudanese driver. At about 4:00 pm the vehicle was ambushed by a group of armed men some 19 kilometers (about 12 miles) from Kaya…," said IAS Director Leif Zetterlund.
An Ugandan army spokesman, Captain Paddy Ankunda, said the killing took place after a dozen "rebels ambushed [the IAS] Land Cruiser vehicle setting it ablaze, before they abducted Collin and his wife along with their driver." In a published statement he said "forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and our [Ugandan] army pursued [the rebels] and as we were about to get to them, they shot them."
"The driver, Mr. Karaba Juma, was shot in the arm while the passenger in the front seat, Mr.
Collin Lee [from] Bermuda was shot in the chest and throat," claimed Zetterland.
PASSING AWAY
His wife, 35-year old Hedwig Unrau Lee escaped unharmed. "Mr. Lee was taken to Yei hospital for treatment but due to severe wounds he passed away" several hours later, Zetterlund explained in a statement on the IAS website.
"IAS strongly condemns this brutal attack and trust that the long waiting peace in the Sudan will cover all parts of the nation," he said. "Collin was a man after God’s own heart," news reports quoted his friend and colleague Elias Kamau, as saying. "He felt that he had a calling from God, and he had a real sense of urgency to accomplish that goal. His death is a shock to us as an organization."
The LRA fighters involved in the ambush reportedly fled towards the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
SUSPENDING OPERATIONS
The attack came after the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) suspended its operations in areas of southern Sudan last week, November 2, when suspected LRA fighters killed two
of its de-miners – an Iraqi international team supervisor and his Sudanese colleague,
said the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).
Earlier relief agencies working in northern Uganda, near Sudan, also curtailed their operations on October 27 following attacks on aid workers by suspected LRA rebels there, reported IRIN.
Those attacks, which occurred on 25 and 26 October, saw the rebels carry out three ambushes on humanitarian workers reportedly killing two people and injuring four.
VIOLENCE UPSURGE
In published remarks, the EU General Affairs Council expressed worries over "a recent upsurge in violent attacks in northern Uganda" as it already "led to the UN suspending its field missions. This is a matter of grave concern."
The EU said the continuation of conflict in northern Uganda had "serious humanitarian" consequences for the estimated 1.5 million people displaced by one of Africa’s longest conflicts.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about 1.5 million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA started fighting nearly two decades ago, analysts say.
LRA leader Joseph Kony, who operates from bases in southern Sudan, and his forces have been accused by human rights groups of massive abuses, including the abduction of at least 20,000 children who are used by LRA commanders as porters, fighters and sex slaves, IRIN reported. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Uganda and Sudan).
