Aid groups on Tuesday urged the international community to avert a third consecutive year of massacres by Lord Resistance Army rebels in central Africa in the run up to Christmas.

They called on the United Nations Security Council to set up an expert panel to address the threat of the LRA.

In a report headlined "Ghosts of Christmas Past", an alliance of 19 aid agencies said the LRA, who have preyed on civilians for more than two decades, was the most brutal rebel group in central Africa.

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