KINSHASA, Dec 29: Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed 189 people during three days of raids on villages in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo last week, a UN agency said on Monday, citing local officials.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA said the killings were reported to have been carried out between Dec 25 and Dec 27 in Faradje, Doruma and Gurba villages by LRA fighters fleeing a two-week-old multinational military offensive led by Uganda.

“According to local officials, on Dec 25, the rebels killed 40 people in Faradje. On Dec 26 and 27, they attacked Doruma and the neighbouring village of Gurba, killing 89 people in Doruma and 60 people in Gurba,” OCHA said in a statement.

Twenty children and an unknown number of adults were abducted during the attacks, OCHA added.

Uganda, Congo and South Sudan launched a joint assault on LRA bases in northeast Congo on Dec 14 after the rebels’ leader, Joseph Kony, failed again to sign a peace deal to end his rebellion against the Ugandan government.

However, despite early bombing raids on the bases and initial claims of success, the offensive has so far failed to locate Kony, a self-styled mystic whose rebels are notorious for kidnapping women and children and forcing children to fight.—Reuters