MUNDRI (Sudan) When Ugandan rebels seized eight-year-old Martin Okenjo and his friend, his father and a companion gave chase to get them back.

But the Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters grabbed the would-be rescuers, laid them down on the ground and - forcing the children to watch - hacked off their arms and legs with a machete.

“Then they hit him on the back of the neck,” said Martin, from the remote southern Sudanese farming village of Moba, recalling the early January attack on his father.

“Bang, bang, bang, until my father was dead,” he added quietly, holding the hand of his young friend who escaped with him. “Then they let us go.”

The children, now safe with relatives after travelling some 50 miles north to the small town of Mundri, are just some of the 8,000 people gathered here seeking safety.

The rebels have scattered across the region in small units after troops from Uganda, southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo launched a joint operation last month.

The Ugandan-led attacks smashed the rebels` jungle hideouts in northeastern DR Congo, but analysts suggest the fighters were tipped off and most escaped before the assault.

Officials said they are now taking revenge, driving some 130,000 people from their homes, abducting others and killing at least 900 across the region in brutal attacks apparently aimed at causing maximum panic.

“They have caused enormous destruction - burning houses and killing people with machetes and heavy tools, and throwing people into fires,” said Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of Sudan`s Western Equatoria state.

Some homes have been looted as the rebels look for supplies, but much of the gruesome violence targeting civilians has been without apparent motive, except to broadcast the message that the fighters are not defeated.

“We have left everything in our homes so that we could be safe,” said village elder Elisiah Arkanjelo. “These are people who have no mercy.”

Government officials say some 33,000 people have been displaced within southern Sudan, while some 8,000 Congolese refugees have crossed into Sudan for shelter.

“We are in need of urgent support,” said Bullen Abiatara Ariwari, commissioner of Mundri West, site of some of the most brutal attacks.

“This is harvest time and they need to gather their crops soon or they will lose their year`s supply to the wild animals. However, I understand why so many are scared to return.”

United Nations agencies are due to provide emergency food supplies, as well as items such as tents, blankets and cooking equipment to support struggling local families, according to officials and church groups helping those affected.

Officials say security has been increased, with extra troops brought in to patrol the potholed streets of Mundri town.

But on the dusty tracks outside town, community militias - gangs of young men armed with bows and arrows, machetes and the occasional AK-47 assault rifle - stand guard around their villages.

“People are terrified,” said Bismark Monday Avokaya, the bishop of Mundri.

“We do not know why they are attacking our people in such a manner.”

LRA rebel chief Joseph Kony began his battle 20 years ago, to fight the marginalisation of the people of northern Uganda.

But their ferocious attacks, with rebels chopping off the limbs and lips of their victims, were often aimed more at the civilians they said they fought for than at the military.

The LRA`s top leaders - fugitives from the International Criminal Court - are accused of forcibly enlisting child soldiers and sex slaves, and of slaughtering tens of thousands of people in battles that have now spread far across the region.

Analysts say much of the estimated 1,000-strong fighting force is shifting to remote forests in the Central African Republic (CAR), with some 100-300 fighters in south Sudan - but admit that no one can be sure.

Rebel representatives deny they have been involved in any attack. “It is all baseless lies that the LRA are attacking anyone,” said Justin Labeja, a member of the rebel delegation in now collapsed peace talks.—AFP