U.N. battles arms trafficking in Congo

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- U.N. peacekeepers are patrolling the Congo-Uganda border amid reports that the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army is trafficking arms in the area, an official said.

"This concern stems from information on the seizure in Uganda of vehicles transporting arms," Lt. Col. Amadou Gueye, a spokesman for the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said Wednesday at a weekly news briefing in Kinshasa, U.N. News reported.

"Measures to halt this traffic include first of all continuing to patrol this frontier with our units deployed in the sector," Gueye said, adding that the DRC and Ugandan armies are cooperating with U.N. forces.

The LRA operated in Uganda for 20 years before expanding its operations into Congo and Sudan. The group is accused of war crimes including mutilations and the use of child soldiers, U.N. News said.