Kampala — A delegation of Acholi elders and religious leaders and the Southern Sudan Vice-President, Dr. Riek Machar, were yesterday expected to depart from the remote Sudanese border town of Nabanga and head to LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony's hideout in Garamba National Park in the DR Congo.

There are over 100 elders from Southern Sudan in the delegation, which adds credibility and urgency to the region's demand for peace.

The team was scheduled to leave for Garamba by midday yesterday on a mission to convince Kony that he will be safe to return to his native northern Uganda if he accepts a peace deal that his representatives and the government of Uganda hope to conclude in the Southern Sudan capital of Juba.

By yesterday morning former LRA commander Brig. Kenneth Banya had left for Garamba, ahead of the delegation on the request of the LRA. Banya, who was seen off by Machar, was in the company of an elderly woman, Mary Atenyo, a mother of one of the senior LRA rebel commanders, Bonny Lubwa.

As they departed, Machar said to Atenyo, "Your message to your son should be that we want peace. Your son should be caring for you in Gulu right now but not in the bush. That the whole world wants peace."

Machar also cautioned former LRA rebel commander Sam Kolo saying, "Let Banya go, you (Kolo) will go with the bigger group."