Obama’s Strategy to Disarm and Defeat the LRA

By Daniel M. Austin
Impunity Watch Reporter,  Africa

Lords Resistance Army Commander Joseph Kony. (Photo Courtesy of Central African Studies).
Lord's Resistance Army Commander Joseph Kony. (Photo Courtesy of Central African Studies).

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – On November 24, President Barack Obama presented the United States Congress with a comprehensive strategy to disarm and destroy Uganda’s Lord Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA is a rebel group that has terrorized innocent civilians in central Africa for more than two decades. Specifically, the rebel group has attacked isolated villages across southern Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), and western Uganda.President Obama’s strategy aims to decapitate the leadership of LRA, and provide support and logistics to communities affected by the rebel group’s actions. 

President Obama’s letter to Congress lays out four specific goals: protect civilians, apprehend or destroy the senior commanders of LRA including Mr. Joseph Kony, encourage current LRA members to lay down their arms and disband, and provide humanitarian aid to villagers who have been affected by the LRA’s violence. Mr. Kony, leader of the LRA, is wanted by the International Criminal Court and lives a transient existence crossing between Sudan and Central Africa Republic to evade capture.

 Although the United States is not sending soldiers to fight the LRA, the initiative is going to provide logistical, economic, political, and military support to countries where the LRA is operating.

 This is not the United States first attempt at trying to destroy the LRA. In 2008, the U.S. made a concerted effort to defeat the LRA through a Ugandan-led operation called Lightning Thunder. The operation flushed out members of the LRA, which were based in the Garamba National Park. However, this government led operation did not capture many LRA members. Instead many of members slipped through the government’s dragnet and crossed from southern Uganda into DR Congo. While in DR Congo, the LRA began a reign of terror that included attacking remote villages and churches.

 Uganda has been fighting the LRA for over twenty years. The LRA was initially established to overthrow the Ugandan government and install a theocracy based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments.  The LRA is known to take children from their families and employ them as child soldiers or sex slaves. Furthermore, the group is known for its brutality of raping, killing, and mutilating the villagers they attack.

 For more information, please see:

AFP — Obama presents plan to disarm Uganda’s LRA rebels—25 November 2010

 BBC Africa — Barack Obama’s plan to defeat Ugandan LRA rebels – 25 November 2010

 The Guardian — US reveals plan to disarm LRA fighters – 25 November 2010

 VOANEWS — Obama Presents Plan to Help Disarm LRA in Uganda –25 November 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive