Great Lakes countries urged to contribute troops towards fighting LRA’s Kony

August 4, 2013(KAMPALA) – The US Charity Invisible Children has asked the East African Legislative Assembly(EALA) to lobby countries in the Great Lakes region to contribute troops towards efforts in fighting the Lords Resistance Army(LRA) rebels.

In a petition to the Speaker of EALA, Margret Zziwa, in Arusha, Tanzania, Invisible Children through its regional Ambassador Jolly Laker asked the East African parliament to send a fact finding mission to LRA affected areas in northern Uganda, DR Congo and the Central African Republic.

While receiving the petition, Zziwa said it would be discussed in the next session of the East African parliament.

“We are going to have our next session in the next two weeks and this (petition) will constitute a very important activity in terms of interrogating the information and challenges that you have expressed to us,’’ Zziwa said on Thursday last week.

Invisible Children also asked the regional parliament to lobby the governments of DRC Congo, Sudan and South Sudan to allow operations against the LRA in their territory.

In a report last week, Resolve, also a US based organisation released a report saying Kony was losing control over his rebel group.

Resolve, among others, recommended that the African Union (AU) should ask the Sudan government to allow broadcast messages encouraging defections from the LRA to be dropped in the Kafia Kingi enclave, where the LRA leader and some of his commanders are suspected to be hiding

In 2011, US President Barrack Obama sent to Uganda 100 military advisers to help the armies of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic to fight the rebel group that in the past few years has mainly been operating in Central Africa Republic.

(ST)