U.S forces deployed to help find Joseph Kony
The hunt for the well-known fugitive rebel warlord Joseph Kony now involves the use of 100 U.S. Special Forces soldiers that have been sent to Central Africa to advise regional forces as the search for his Lord’s Resistance Army continues.
Although U.S officials do not know the exact location of Kony, he has been operating into areas bordering the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Aronda Nyakairima, Uganda’s chief of defence forces, told AFP, “The last intelligence that they got from someone who surrendered indicated that Kony was somewhere in western Bahr-el-Ghazal at a point where the triangular borders meet.”
“Kony is definitely still a threat. He’s been on the run. He’s on the decline, and in survival mode, but he is still dangerous and he’s going to be dangerous until the LRA are eliminated,” a U.S. Special Forces soldier told CNN.
President Barack Obama’s decision directed at sending troops to central Africa came in October of 2011, before the release of an online film done by U.S back advocacy group “Invisible Children” that was watched by tens of millions of people. The momentum gathered from the film partially influenced the U.S military to consider committing its troop to search efforts, U.S. military officials said.
Despite the new military efforts by U.S. forces, it is not the first time the U.S. has supported regional forces in finding the LRA, which originally aimed at overthrowing the Ugandan government. Previous efforts have been done on secrecy due to the tension between the U.S. and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been accused of carrying out corrupt practices, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
According to Resolve Uganda, and nonprofit group working to monitor LRA activity, 2,400 people have been killed by the LRA while 465,000 have been displaced. The number of children and adults abducted adds 3,400 to the list.
