COIN case: LRA Lords Resistance Army

[davidbfpo]

The pressure groups have told at least this Jo'burg-based journalist the LRA are active once more:
Rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have dramatically escalated their attacks, abducting more than 200 people - including 54 children - in the first two months of this year. The LRA carried out twice as many raids in January and February alone as during the whole of 2015, according to "LRA Crisis Tracker".....The LRA had been reduced to as few as 120 fighters and 100 accompanying women and children.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/joseph-kony/12182422/Joseph-Konys-LRA-abducts-scores-of-child-soldiers-in-new-wave-of-attacks.html

[davidbfpo]

Is this a pointer to an exit coming? The article opens with:
Africa Command’s five-year search for the elusive warlord Joseph Kony continues, but the mission in the remote jungles of central Africa has become an albatross for the general in charge of the campaign......An expensive albatross.
Link:http://www.stripes.com/news/africom-boss-scrutinizes-us-role-in-hunt-for-warlord-kony-1.405757

[davidbfpo]

A long review by Professor Stephen Chan, an expert on Africa, of a book 'When the Walking Defeats You' by Ledio Cakaj, as he explains:
It’s narrated by a young Ugandan student, pseudonym “George”, who was expelled from school and sent by his own family to join and fight with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He became a bodyguard to the group’s infamous leader, Joseph Kony, who admired him for his learning.

...that as a very young soldier in Uganda, he also had his reasons and reflections, fears and hopes, pride and premonitions.

(Ends with) George’s telling is very much a narration of an encounter, not a psychological or intellectual inquiry. But it isn’t cheap or glib, and the book as a whole raises profund questions. Perhaps there are reasons why children fight – and perhaps even why madmen fight.Link:https://theconversation.com/in-one-of-2016s-best-books-a-former-lords-resistance-army-child-soldier-reveals-the-reason-behind-the-mayhem-70027? (https://theconversation.com/in-one-of-2016s-best-books-a-former-lords-resistance-army-child-soldier-reveals-the-reason-behind-the-mayhem-70027?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%206397&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%206397+CID_ffd634f519f07ac96ffa5aa08042e940&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=In%20one%20of%202016s%20best%20books%20a% 20former%20Lords%20Resistance%20Army%20child%20sol dier%20reveals%20the%20reason%20behind%20the%20may hem)

[SWJ Blog]

Lord’s Resistance Army: The U.S. Military’s Unorthodox Mission Against Kony (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/lord%E2%80%99s-resistance-army-the-us-military%E2%80%99s-unorthodox-mission-against-kony)

Moderator adds: the link is to the WSJ and cannot - here - be viewed without $ or registration.

[davidbfpo]

From the NYT:
The Pentagon is poised to significantly scale back a decade-long mission to capture or kill Joseph Kony, one of Africa’s most notorious warlords, in a sign that the United States and its African allies no longer see him as a regional threat.Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/world/africa/joseph-kony-congo-africa.html?

Trump's transition team asked questions why, so the renewal in April 2017 may be different.

[davidbfpo]

One episode in this long running campaign, truly a 'Small War', has come to an end:
Uganda and the US have ended a six-year hunt for the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony (https://www.theguardian.com/world/joseph-kony), the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Uganda began withdrawing its troops from their base in eastern CAR last week. The departure of 100 US special forces, who worked alongside the Ugandan soldiers, began this week.

There is more detail in the article, including two LRA leaders have defected and the group now may have 120 fighters - hiding in a forest area which both Sudan and South Sudan claim.
Link:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/01/end-joseph-kony-hunt-fears-lords-resistance-army-return

[davidbfpo]

This man appeared in Post 245, in January 2016 and I spotted this update in a photo collection:
The international criminal court trial of former child soldier turned warlord Dominic Ongwen in Lukodi, Uganda, started on 6 December 2016, and was broadcast live. The first former child soldier to be tried at the ICC, Ongwen, 41, denied 70 war crimes and charges of crimes against humanityLink:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2017/may/01/uncatchable-fruitless-quest-joseph-kony-in-pictures

His ICC trial resume today. From:https://www.icc-cpi.int/uganda/ongwen

[davidbfpo]

An update and unusually the focus is on the local people in part of CAR and the likely impact of a Ugandan Army exit:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39999324

[davidbfpo]

A short article that starts with:
The Lord’s Resistance Army is seriously depleted as a fighting force, but it still continues to exist as an armed group. This resilience is driven by several key factors.It concludes:
In sum, the LRA has survived by virtue of its organizational cohesion, resource use, and the ability to read its political terrain in order to exploit regions without state structures. However, such strategies may not be sufficient to sustain the LRA indefinitely. The Ugandan-led Regional Task Force (RTF) has killed and captured senior commanders from the battlefield and increased fighter defections. To be sure, the hunt for the LRA has been hamstrung by logistical and political difficulties. Above all, RTF operations are currently at risk of losing their logistical support from the U.S. Special Forces, which have larger consequences for regional peace and security in central and eastern Africa.Link:https://sustainablesecurity.org/2017/07/03/the-resilience-of-the-lords-resistance-army/

[davidbfpo]

An allegation made by a defector to a Ugandan online news site; which supports a NGO report in 2015:
Mr Patrick Kidega, 32, who has been in the rebel ranks for 16 years but defected in December last year from the Central African Republic (CAR), says the elusive rebel leader is killing elephants for their precious tasks and selling them to Arabs to finance his operations.
Link:http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kony-ivory-Arabs--captive-diamond-DR-Congo/688334-4586092-12sg0kiz/index.html

The same news site in April 2018 reported that Kony was in the Central African Republic (a seperate thread for that troubled nation) and speculated Uganda might help the CAR Army.
Link:http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/Has-Kony-permanently-settled-Central-African-Republic/689844-4534856-hk46egz/index.html