Hunt for Kony over, LRA ‘neutralised’

THE HUNT for Joseph Kony, the leader of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – infamous for chopping off limbs and deploying child soldiers – is over, according by the Ugandan army.

Due to the LRA movement having been significantly weakened, and several of its leaders killed and others captured, Uganda decided that the group no longer posed a security threat and pulled troops who were hunting the LRA in the Central African Republic (CAR) out of the country.

“The decision to withdraw was premised on the realisation that the mission to neutralise the LRA has now been successfully achieved. The LRA’s capacity and means of making war against Uganda have been degraded,” said Ugandan Army spokesperson Richard Karemire.

According to the Sudan Tribune, on March 29, the US Africa Command announced the removal of US military forces participating in the Regional Task Force (RTF) against the LRA due to its weakened status.

While Kony remains wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), key rebel commanders, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odyambo have been killed.

Initially purporting to fight against Ugandan government suppression during the Ugandan Bush War of the 1980s, the LRA allegedly turned against Kony’s erstwhile supporters, supposedly to “purify” the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy.

Proclaiming himself a spokesman of God, Kony has been accused by Kampala of ordering the abduction of children to become child soldiers and sex slaves.

His efforts resulted in 66 000 children becoming soldiers and the internal displacement of 2 million people in Uganda, the CAR, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan from 1986 to 2009.