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Lord's Resistance Army halts peace talks

GULU, Uganda, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Once-promising peace talks between Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army died Saturday after LRA rebels ambushed troops near a northern town.

President Yoweri Museveni vowed renewed pressure against the rebels after their attack on soldiers near Gulu, the BBC reported.

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In 18 years of fighting the LRA has displaced 1.5 million Ugandans and abducted more than 20,000 children, turning them into slaves or soldiers, or selling them as slaves to Sudanese buyers.

A limited ceasefire had been declared in November so rebels could discuss peace prospects, but Friday mediators said the insurgents pulled out of a planned peace deal at the last minute because they needed more time to study the document.

Then the attack came.

"It is the rebels who refused to sign the cease-fire memorandum of understanding and this is the reason why the government has taken the decision to start fighting them while the peace option remains," Museveni told Gulu residents.

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