The Uganda People's Defense Forces(UPDF) has said that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have displaced over 800 families in Juba, southern Sudan.

UPDF chief political commissar Brig. Kale Kaihura was quoted byThe New Vision newspaper on Monday as saying that the residents ofJuba who are living in protected camps are bitter with the LRA leader, Joseph Kony.

Kaihura, who has pitched camp in Juba to coordinate operations against the rebels, said the situation in the camps in Juba is worse than that in similar camps in Uganda.

Kaihura said the LRA remains a security threat not only to the people in northern Uganda but also to the people in southern Sudanespecially those in Juba.

"We can't give a deadline for getting rid of Kony, but we are working tirelessly with the Sudan government to see that this problem comes to an end soon," he said, adding that "we have mounted lots of military pressure on Kony and his fighters and this has forced him to change his base from Biliniang to Imatong."

Ugandan army began to enter the southern Sudan in March 2002 topursue the LRA rebels after an agreement reached between the two governments.

LRA rebels, based in southern Sudan, have been fighting an 18-year war to topple the Ugandan government, killing tens of thousands of civilians, abducting over 20,000 children and displacing over 1.6 million people in northern Uganda.

Source: Xinhua