Uganda has extended a limited ceasefire in the north of the country for another week to allow Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels to assemble and meet government officials for peace talks, the army said today.
"The ceasefire has been extended until December 3rd," said army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza.
President Yoweri Museveni, responding to an LRA offer of talks, declared a temporary truce on November 14th to allow the rebels to meet his chief negotiator and declare their wish to come out of the bush.
"The ceasefire has been extended by the commander-in-chief, so the LRA, if they are serious, can take the opportunity to assemble in the zone," Major Bantariza said.
Many of the LRA, about 80 per cent of which aid workers say are abducted children, walked into the zone 300 km (185 miles) north of the capital Kampala after Mr Museveni first announced a week-long ceasefire in the area.
A senior rebel official met the government's top mediator, but the location of Mr Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet who leads the cult-like group, was not immediately clear.
On Tuesday the army said it attacked the LRA chief's group in neighbouring lawless southern Sudan and highlighted a string of alleged rebel atrocities outside the ceasefire zone.
With confusing and sometimes contradictory messages coming from the rebels and government officials in the north, the initial truce expired without any comment from the authorities.
But yesterday an LRA spokesman telephoned a radio station to reiterate the group's commitment to peace talks.
The war between the army and the LRA has forced some 1.6 million people from their homes, triggering what aid workers have called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.