NZer rescued after abduction by Ugandan rebels

NAIROBI - A New Zealander has been rescued by troops in a northern Ugandan national park after being abducted by suspected rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance army (LRA) on Tuesday.

A second New Zealand tourist and two other Britons were attacked by several rebels, who fired shots at their vehicle, and were forced to flee into the bush.

The group, part of an expedition attempting to complete an ascent of the Nile river by raft, were later found safe by Ugandan soldiers.

The rebels shot dead a British tourist.

Garth McIntyre, one of the New Zealanders, escaped with a gun shot graze to his head.

Mr McIntyre's wife, Sue, said today he required stitches to the wound but was fine.

Ms McIntyre received a phone call about 4.30am today telling her Garth was safe and had been airlifted out of the area.

Fellow New Zealander Cam McLeay was also safe, despite earlier concerns that he had been kidnapped.

Garth McIntyre had reassured his wife that he was fine after receiving the superficial gun-shot wound to his head.

Ms McIntyre said both Mr McLeay and her husband were very experienced in these types of expeditions.

"A few incidents had happened as they were travelling up-river in their boat and that had made them have to change their itinerary a wee bit and cut in through the road and perhaps go further into the area where these rebels operate,'' she said.

"I don't think they felt they were actually right in the danger zone, but obviously they were.''

On Saturday, suspected LRA rebels shot dead a British aid worker in an ambush in neighbouring southern Sudan.

The LRA has waged a 19-year-old war against the Ugandan government, and last month began targeting foreigners -- apparently in reprisal for arrest warrants issued for their leaders by the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

In late October, two local aid workers were gunned down in northern Uganda, then an Iraqi and a Sudanese working for a Swiss-based mine-clearing agency were killed in an ambush on their convoy in southern Sudan where the LRA has bases.

Experts on the conflict say the rebels appear to changed tactics in response to an Oct. 14 statement by the ICC saying it had issued its first arrest warrants for the LRA leadership.

Led by self-styled mystic Joseph Kony, the LRA insurgency has uprooted more than 1.6 million people in northern Uganda and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.

The cult-like group has never given a clear account of its political aims, but it is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping more than 20,000 children who are forced to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

On Monday, Britain's Foreign Office said the LRA may now be targeting "white people", referring to a handwritten letter apparently written by the LRA and passed to locals last month.

Britain has advised its nationals not to visit Murchison Falls following an attack on a vehicle in the park in July.

- REUTERS