Kampala — UGANDAN special forces have killed a senior commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the Central African Republic, the army spokesman said yesterday.

Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye said Okello Okutti was shot and killed on Tuesday during a clash with Ugandan troops in Obo, near the country's eastern border with Sudan

"Okutti used to be the overall commander for LRA operations in Pader district. He was a senior commander among the groups currently in CAR," Kulayigye said.

Intelligence operatives of the UPDF are currently hunting the LRA in the Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan and the Central African Republic.

"It's a hunt," Kulayigye said.

"They are scattered. They wanted to head either to Chad or to South Sudan's Bahr el Ghazal province. We have blocked them now and we are running after them within the Central African Republic."

In a related development, 46 LRA fighters surrendered to the Southern Sudan army, SPLA, in the Western Equatoria province.

First, a group of five defected, said SPLA spokesman Maj. Gen. Kuol Diem Kuol, followed by a larger group of 41.

Several LRA top commanders have either surrendered or been killed in recent weeks.