By Joe Bavier OBO, Central African Republic, July 8 (Reuters) - Abducted, robbed and raped this year by raiding Ugandan rebels, Henriette and other villagers in this remote southeast corner of Central African Republic live in daily fear their attackers will return. In February and March, several hundred fighters of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group entered the Central African Republic from their forest bases in north Democratic Republic of Congo, looting homes and abducting civilians. The violent LRA incursion into one of the world's most inaccessible areas has aroused fears of a new front being opened up in a tangle of interlinked conflicts involving Sudan, Congo and Uganda whose borders converge at the heart of Africa. United Nations officials fear a possible joint military offensive by these neighbours against the LRA, agreed last month as a strategy if the rebels do not commit to peace, could push the Ugandan insurgents into the Central African Republic. "The southeast is vast and very sparsely populated, with an almost complete absence of state authorities," Toby Lanzer, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Central African Republic, said. "If there were military operations against the LRA, it's highly likely they will seek safe haven in this country," he told Reuters. The LRA fighters, who have waged one of Africa's longest guerrilla wars against the Kampala government, abducted about 150 people in 10 days in the February-March raid between Obo and Bambouti in the CAR, a poor former French colony. Men among the captives were forced to carry looted supplies, but most were women and children who U.N. officials believe were taken to be used as sex slaves and child soldiers. "They pushed us out of the house and tied a rope around my waist, there were already others attached in a line," said Henriette, 28, whose name has been changed for her protection. She told Reuters that in Obo the LRA raiders also kidnapped her 14-year-old daughter. After walking across the bush through the night and into the next day, carrying booty looted from homes, the rebels and their prisoners finally stopped. "That's when the rapes began," Henriette said. "I could hear the women crying and screaming all around ... it went on all night. One rebel would finish, rest, then come back. They all did ... I don't know how many raped me."ALL-OUT OFFENSIVEReleased the next day with her daughter and a dozen others, she returned to her Central African Republic village but is now four months pregnant and awaiting the results of an HIV test. The prospects of an all-out military offensive against the LRA have increased since the failure of talks to end two decades of rebellion. In April, the LRA's leader, self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, failed to turn up to sign a peace deal. However, the elusive Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, held out a hope of negotiations again earlier this month when he told U.N. envoy Joachim Chissano he wanted another peace meeting. Lanzer said that, if the LRA invaded or was pushed by military force into the Central African Republic, the country's small army would be ill-prepared to deal with the threat. At the time of the LRA raid, Central African Republic's army did not have a single soldier posted in the isolated southeast. About 100 troops and paramilitary police have now been sent to bolster security in the Obo frontier area. This has done little to reassure Henriette, who says she has nightmares about the marauders coming back. "In the morning I talk with my neighbours, and they all have the same nightmare," she said. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Ingrid Melander, Pascal Fletcher and Andrew Dobbie)
An internally displaced man rests between mosquito nets at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Markunda in the Central African Republic, July 7, 2008. Sparsely-populated Central African Republic, one of ...
