KAMPALA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan army and police have launched a joint operation to recover illegal guns, a threat to the ongoing return and resettlement process of internal refugees in the war-torn northern Uganda.

    The practice comes amid the ongoing joint military operations in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to hunt down Uganda's rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

    "There are a lot of illegal arms in northern Uganda. We want to get rid off these guns," Walter Ochora, the resident district commissioner for Gulu district told Xinhua on Thursday.

    He said there are thousands of guns still in the hands of former LRA rebels who surrendered to the government.

    Over 15,000 LRA combatants have surrendered to the government and granted amnesty in northern Uganda since 2003.

    "If you go to the army, the records show very few weapons surrendered by the combatants. This means there are many guns still at hands of former rebels," said Ochora, who chairs the district security committee.

    "We appeal to those who have these guns to surrender them to the security operatives before they are arrested," he added.

    There have been several road ambushes and armed robberies in Acholi sub-region, the epicenter of LRA's over two decade insurgency, which killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted some two million in the north.

    According to the army spokesman for the north, Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, 403 illegal guns and 11,283 ammunitions mainly from former LRA combatants, armed robbers and Karimojong warriors in Acholi sub-region were recovered last year.

    Meanwhile, a total of 12 thugs involved in armed robberies some of them former LRA fighters were killed and 83 others were arrested.