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Armed followers of a former faith healer have stepped up deadly ambushes on convoys traveling in northern Uganda. Led by Joseph Kony, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrilla movement is seeking to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and rule the East African country according to the Ten Commandments.

In March, the rebels, who operate out of southern Sudan, ambushed a 17-vehicle convoy in Murchison Falls Park, killing 110 civilians and 20 government soldiers. Last month, LRA rebels fired on a convoy of 140 vehicles near Pakwach, killing two soldiers. Guerrillas also destroyed hundreds of houses in the suburbs of Gulu and killed 34 people in Pabbo in March.

In April 1995, lra rebels massacred 250 civilians with machine guns at Atiak near the Sudanese border. At least six Catholic missionaries have been abducted by LRA forces in the past two years.

The LRA is a remnant of militant "prophetess" Alice Lakwena's radical Holy Spirit Army, defeated by government troops seven years ago.

Lakwena's forces suffered hundreds of casualties as they believed the Holy Spirit would protect them against bullets. The LRA launched its present guerrilla campaign in 1994. Kony, who often wears white robes, is related to Lakwena, who is in exile in neighboring Kenya.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

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May 20 1996, Vol. 40, No. 6