LRA attacks in South Sudan significantly reduce despite government claims: report

October 11, 2015 (JUBA) – A newly published report has recorded significant reduction in attacks in South Sudan by the Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, contrary to previous claims by the South Sudanese government blaming the Ugandan rebels for many of the recent attacks in the states of Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal.

A 7-page report released by the Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative on 8 October 2015 has tracked the rebels activities way back to 2009 in the countries affected by the LRA, including South Sudan. It contained a concise assessment of the patterns and survival strategies between January and August 2015, concluding that many of the recent attacks were committed by other armed groups, not LRA alone.

“Civilians in LRA-affected areas continue to suffer from attacks by a wide range of armed groups in addition to the LRA, including poachers, armed bandits, rebel groups, and rogue military forces. In some attacks, the perpetrators remain unidentified,” partly reads the report.

The report tracked that LRA groups only frequently targeted South Sudan’s Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el-Ghazal states way back from 2007–2011, but have only attacked civilians there on five occasions since 2012.

However, the report said despite the drop in violence, the LRA’s record of brutality in South Sudan continues to have ripple effects on the region. In recent months, tensions have mounted between the predominant Zande ethnic group in Western Equatoria state and Dinka herders and members of the South Sudanese army (SPLA).

Though conflict between the two groups predates the arrival of the LRA in the region, years of Zande frustration at the SPLA’s unwillingness to protect Zande communities from LRA attacks has greatly exacerbated tensions.

“The LRA’s legacy of brutality has also been politicized by the opposing sides of South Sudan’s civil war,” it said.

In January 2015, unidentified armed groups killed 15 people in three separate attacks in Western Bahr el-Ghazal. Several South Sudanese government officials blamed the attacks on LRA forces, while other analysts determined fighters from the South Sudanese opposition forces were responsible.

In September 2015, South Sudanese officials linked the LRA to another attack in Central Equatoria state for which South Sudanese opposition forces also allegedly claimed responsibility.

“LRA forces last committed an attack in Central Equatoria state in March 2009, making their involvement in the September 2015 attack highly unlikely,” the report further observed.

The LRA crisis tracker recorded a total of 90 attacks on civilians in LRA-affected areas across many countries in the region in the first eight months of 2015 by unidentified groups: 51 in north-eastern Congo, 35 in eastern Central African Republic (CAR), and four in western South Sudan.

In Congo, many such attacks occurred near Garamba National Park, where armed groups travel to illegally poach ivory.

“In the CAR, such attacks were particularly concentrated in Mbomou prefecture, near the towns of Bakouma, Rafai, and Derbissaka,” it added.

(ST)