UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- The United Nations says the campaign in Congo's Garamba National Park against the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army has been canceled.
It comes the day after eight U.N. peacekeepers from Guatemala were killed and five wounded Monday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's northeastern region during a firefight with members of the LRA, generally known as a band of adult-led children that roams north from Uganda up into southern Sudan and westward from Uganda into the Congo and back again.
The U.N. Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, said Tuesday the Garamba Park operation was canceled and peacekeepers taken to the city of Kisangani.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, division commander for peacekeepers in eastern Congo who was visiting U.N. World Headquarters in New York, told reporters Tuesday the remaining peacekeepers were extracted by helicopter from the scene of the battle.
Asked about reports some of the slain peacekeepers had been decapitated by machete, he declined comment, saying he had heard no such reports and was awaiting debriefings of the combatants and medical examinations of the dead.
However, Cammaert did say the peacekeepers had been following up on reports from civilians and non-governmental organizations in the area saying LRA members armed with AK-47 automatic weapons were harassing civilians in the region, forcing many to flee the area.
He described the region as heavy jungle with patches of savannah.
In eastern North Kivu province, south of the park, a U.N. humanitarian mission said the situation in Kanyabayonga and Lubero was calm following massive displacement caused by the nearby presence of armed insurgents.
The mission said local authorities estimated 50,000 internally displaced people were sheltered in churches and schools.
