Kony failed to show up to sign a peace accord with the Ugandan government in April [AP]

At least 14 south Sudan soldiers were among the dead in Wednesday's attack in Nabanga village, which has been the site of peace talks between Uganda's government and the LRA.
 
"The LRA have started war," Gabriel Changson Chang, south Sudan's information minister, told the Reuters news agency in Juba on Saturday.

"Southern Sudan will not be the place where they can wage this war."

Peace negotiations

"It seems very unlikely to me given the fact that the southern Sudanese have been at the forefront of facilitating the peace negotiations that have been going on for two years.

"Given my experience with LRA fighters and the SPLA [the south Sudanese army] I would not be surprised if this attack was actually unprovoked.

Nabanga was the site of peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government

"My sense is that it was probably an ambush by the LRA to get food, water and resources from southern Sudanese soldiers."

On Thursday, a Ugandan military spokesman said that Kampala, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan would launch a joint offensive against the guerrillas if Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, failed to commit to the peace talks.

Kony, who is accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in April failed to show up to sign a final deal to end more than two decades of civil war in northern Uganda.

The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead and about two million displaced.

Security experts believe that Kony spends much of his time moving between camps in northeastern DR Congo's Garamba Forest and the Central African Republic.

The group has also used bases inside southern Sudan.

Aid workers say that his forces have raided villages and abducted hundreds of civilians in the three countries in recent months.

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