Think-tank offers strategies to defeat LRA rebels
Richard Ruati
April 29, 2010 (JUBA) – There an urgent need for a new strategy to protect civilians from atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), operating in Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African republic, a think-thank said on Wednesday.
Troops from Uganda, Southern Sudan and Democratic republic of Congo fought the LRA rebels from December 2008 to March 2009 ending their presence in Uganda’s border areas but failed to stop their attacks on civilians.
“To put an end to what has become a causeless and homeless rebellion, a new strategy is required that prioritizes civilian protection, as well as a united effort among military and civilian actors within and across national boundaries”, says Thierry Vircoulon, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Project Director in a report released on Wednesday.
The report called for “flexible and innovative forms of cooperation between international, state and non-state actors” to provide security to the affected civilians “this semi-stateless zone”.
Despite, a joint military operation carried by
Several LRA troops have fled north-eastern DRC, where they operated, after the joint attacks from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan armies from December 2008 to March 2009.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel force originally from Northern Uganda, continues to be a threat to civilians after twenty-three years of war. In 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted the head of the LRA, Joseph Kony, and four other commanders for crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape.
During the last eighteen months, the LRA has been killing and abducting civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan, becoming a destabilizing force in an already volatile region. Despite an ongoing military offensive led by the Ugandan military with the support of regional armies, the rebels have continued to wreak havoc. In the last year and a half, the LRA has killed close to 2000 civilians and abducted over 2600 people. More than 700 abductees are children who were forced into fighting or sexual slavery.
In Southern Sudan, the inaudible Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels continued to terrorize Western Equatoria citizens since rebels were uprooted from Garamba Park mid December 2008.
Security in the region deny claims by officials in the region stressing that it’s clear the LRA is not dwindling. Almost simultaneous attacks in different towns hundreds of miles apart in both CAR and neighboring Congo indicate the presence of many different groups.
The DR Congo army continues the hunt down of LRA troops after March 2009 with logistical support from the UN Mission in DR Congo (MONUC). But despite their declining numbers in DR Congo, the Ugandan rebels still commit atrocities against civilians in the north-east.
Edward Dalby, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Analyst points that, “National security forces are too weak to protect their own people, while the Ugandan army, with U.S. support, is focused on hunting Joseph Kony, the group’s leader,” he said.
Adding “the Ugandans have eroded the LRA’s numbers and made it difficult for scattered groups to communicate. But, even if they eventually kill or capture Kony, LRA fighters will remain a terrible danger to civilians in this mostly ungoverned frontier zone”.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed, in a report published Wednesday from Kinshasa, the presence in north-eastern DR Congo of about 400 people who fled rebel attacks of Uganda’s Lord Resistance Army (LRA) in neighboring Central African Republic (CAR).
The refugees are in Bondo in Lower Uele district of Orientale Province in DRC. The OCHA reports that an inter-agency mission visited the area to assess the situation in this district. The first people fleeing the attacks came on 26 March and the number continues to increase, the report said.
(ST)