East Africa: Frustration over LRA's refusal to free women and children

The Ugandan government on Tuesday said the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continued to hold thousands of abducted children and women, despite repeated pleas for their release from both the state and international organisations. "We keep reminding the LRA about the request over the issue and on numerous occasions we tell them face-to-face to release the children and women they hold hostage", Okello Oryem, junior foreign minister and deputy head of the government delegation to peace talks with the LRA in Southern Sudan, told reporters in Kampala.