Ugandan rebels have killed 38 south Sudanese villagers since Christmas in the latest of a wave of attacks that have left hundreds of people dead in the region, a Sudanese official said on Thursday.Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more attacks by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters. The guerrillas returned to their murderous ways after a brief lull that ended when regional militaries launched an offensive against their Congolese hideouts in mid-December.
"They have caused unprecedented havoc, killing almost 40 people between Decemebr 24 and January 1," Kumba told Reuters. "We are now a target area. This is more than hunger. This is revenge."
The LRA's elusive commander Joseph Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for their role in one of Africa's longest-running wars.
Some 2 million civilians were displaced in northern Uganda and the conflict has also destabilised neighbouring parts of volatile northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and oil-producing southern Sudan.
LRA fighters killed 20 people on Friday in a raid on a park ranger station in the Congolese town of Negero, local officials said, while UN officials say LRA fighters killed nearly 200 people during three days of raids in DRC in late December.
Catholic charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 Congolese died in a series of Christmas week massacres.