Uganda rebels to sign historic peace deal

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

RI-KWANGBA, Sudan (AFP) — Uganda's top rebel leader Joseph Kony was expected to sign an historic peace deal on Thursday to end one of Africa's longest and most brutal civil conflicts.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) chief was due in the southern Sudan jungle town of Ri-Kwangba to initial an agreement which is to be signed separately by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni four days later.

"They (the LRA) told me he would be there," Southern Sudan vice president and chief mediator Riek Machar told AFP Wednesday, amid lingering speculation over the elusive rebel's presence.

Kony -- whose group is notorious for raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands -- has been in hiding to avoid a warrant issued against him by the...