COIN case: LRA Lords Resistance Army

[carl]

My comment on the Ugandan army is based on their inability in their own country to deal with LRA which apparently comprises a majority of child soldiers.

I was told by Ugandan guy I know who was a recon platoon leader in one of the Ugandan factions during the 80s wars that the LRA should not be taken lightly. Child soldiers or no, stone cold evil or no, he said they know what they are doing.

Also during late 2005 or early 2006, the LRA beat the brains out of a Guatemalan army unit, part of MONUC, that was trying to track them down. That happened in northeast DRC.

[Rex Brynen]

Also during late 2005 or early 2006, the LRA beat the brains out of a Guatemalan army unit, part of MONUC, that was trying to track them down. That happened in northeast DRC.

January 2006--a Guatemalan Special Forces unit. They lost eight dead when they were ambushed by the LRA in Garamba National Park.

[JMA]

January 2006--a Guatemalan Special Forces unit. They lost eight dead when they were ambushed by the LRA in Garamba National Park.

There seems to be little out there on the incident. How many were in this unit and had they acclimatised and orientated themselves to an African jungle?

[davidbfpo]

JMA,

Try Google with: "Garamba National Park" + MONUC + Guatemala. That found over four hundred results and the first few pages show several potentially useful sites to check.

[JMA]

JMA,

Try Google with: "Garamba National Park" + MONUC + Guatemala. That found over four hundred results and the first few pages show several potentially useful sites to check.

It seems an 80 man recce patrol (out of a force of 105) had a four hour contact with an armed force (thought to be the LRA) in which they suffered 8 KIA and 14 WIA (5 seriously)

However, from this report in the 19 March report a Roman Catholic priest Father Wolgang Schonecke claimed that the majority of the dead bodies found at the scene of the ambush were those of Ugandan regular soldiers.

Then from here: A British officer?

Responding to the sound of gunshots, on January 23, Guatemalan UN peacekeepers, commanded by a British officer, went into Garamba National Park to fight the LRA. Instead, eight Guatemalan UN soldiers and 15 LRA were killed in the fighting, about 4km northwest of Aba town. Until that day, MONUC and the Kinshasa government did not admit that the LRA was in Congo. The UN in public statements did not officially identify the attackers as members of the LRA, although UN sources say they were almost certainly part of the group.

Then the UN and others condemned the killing of the "peace-keepers" which is very weird as these troops were on a mission to find and kill LRA members.

More questions than answers.

[M-A Lagrange]

Then the UN and others condemned the killing of the "peace-keepers" which is very weird as these troops were on a mission to find and kill LRA members.

More questions than answers.

Well, actually it is widely agreed, shared and known that it was LRA. After this incident in 2006, LRA was labelled as "special forces" by the UN and no troops contributors did want to conduct any "find and ..." missions on LRA.

This is way in 2008 and 2009 when the peace talk went wrong MONUC did not respond to LRA killings (800 civillians).
Even more absurd, the MONUC HQ in Kisangany was dismanteled just several weeks before this happened.