A U.S.-based watchdog group says a series of defections from the Lord’s Resistance Army have left the Central African rebel group weaker than ever. …read more
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C. African Republic leader says security improving
The transitional leader of Central African Republic says the security situation is improving in his coup-plagued country, despite reports to the contrary from aid groups.
During a visit to Burkina Faso on Monday, Michel Djotodia said the biggest security threat came from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious rebel group led by Joseph Kony that has operated in the country for years.
Djotodia became interim leader in March after his Seleka rebel coalition deposed former President Francois Bozize.
Human Rights Watch has accused Seleka of destroying dozens of villages since February, and aid groups have accused the international community of ignoring the humanitarian crisis in the nation of 4.6 million.
Djotodia made no mention of Seleka abuses but said peace had been restored to the capital, Bangui.
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Expert: Warlord Kony under pressure to free women
The fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony is jettisoning women and children in a possible desperate bid to keep his weakened group lean and mobile, an expert said Friday, after three women freed by the Lord’s Resistance Army arrived home in Uganda after spending years in the bush.
Kasper Agger of the U.S.-based Kony watchdog group Enough Project said the release late last month of 28 LRA abductees by LRA fighters in Congo also suggests the group is undergoing turmoil amid a manhunt — supported by U.S. military advisers — for its leaders.
“It could be an indication that they are trying to become more mobile,” Agger said of the LRA, a small but active group of fighters whose rebellion originated in Uganda in the 1980s. “We have seen this before but not on this scale.”
Kony, a suspected war criminal who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, possibly is also freeing women to punish commanders of questionable loyalty, Agger said. The LRA rarely releases women, who are often captured as young girls who then become sex slaves for commanders and some fighters. Many women have raised families in captivity, and Kony himself is said to have taken scores of women and sired many children.
In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, three of the 28 women and children freed by the LRA in Congo said Friday they believed Kony gave the order for their release but had no idea why. One of them was pregnant with an LRA fighter’s child, said Grace Ocitti, a Ugandan official who was debriefing the women.
This week the U.S. announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the elusive Kony, who last year became the subject a wildly popular online video that highlighted his crimes, including the use of child soldiers.
Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, the commander of African Union troops tasked with eliminating the LRA, said Friday that Kony was believed to be constantly crossing from Central African Republic to Congo and back. Olum said the decision to free some abductees was not an act of charity and that it was likely taken by a junior LRA commander under pressure to free a wife or girlfriend about to be killed in firefights.
“The LRA, when they know that they are going to lose their families, that’s what they do,” he said.
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US to seek ways to continue helping hunt for Kony
A U.S. official says the United States is looking for ways to ensure the hunt for warlord Joseph Kony in Central African Republic continues despite a change in leadership in the country.
The U.S. on Wednesday announced a new $5 million reward for the arrest of Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a small but brutal band of fighters who abduct children as fighters and sexual slaves.
U.S. special forces are helping as advisers in the hunt for Kony. But after rebels deposed the Central African Republic‘s president earlier this month, the search there has been suspended.
State Department official Stephen J. Rapp, said Thursday that the rebels want to see Kony expelled from their country, opening the potential for support for the U.S. and African operation there.
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Officials: US to offer $5 million bounty on Kony
U.S. officials say the Obama administration will offer up to $5 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of Lord’s Resistance Army chief Joseph Kony, two of his top aides and a Rwandan rebel leader suspected of crimes against humanity.
The State Department will announce the bounties on Wednesday, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the move. The money is being offered under a provision in the War Crimes Rewards Program authored by Secretary of State John Kerry when he was a senator.
Kony is accused of ordering widespread atrocities during a brutal campaign for power that originated in Uganda in the 1980s. He is now believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic.
Invisible Children soldiers on with KONY 2012 campaign as warlord is in hiding
It’s been more than a year since the video “KONY 2012″ went viral on the Internet and brought slacktivism into the public spotlight, but the group missed its goal of bringing murderous African warlord Joseph Kony to justice by the end of last year.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the campaign, San Diego-based organization Invisible Children had stumbled in the months after it launched. It struggled to address questions about its funding and expenses and then co-founder Jason Russell had a well-publicized breakdown. But the group is back on mission, with a fresh video and a renewed effort to shine a spotlight on the jungles of the Congo, where Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is believed to be hiding.
“We believe that last year was a monumental success. The goal of the film was to make the crimes of Joseph Kony and the LRA known on a mass scale,” Noelle West, a spokeswoman for Invisible Children, told FoxNews.com. “The international institutions that should be responsible for implementing initiatives that could bring an end to this conflict have not felt enough pressure to provide the necessary resources to do so.”
“We wanted to create that overwhelming pressure, and the KONY 2012 campaign was extremely successful at doing just that.”
Despite the failure to see Kony brought to justice, the group claims to have succeeded on several fronts:
- More high-ranking members have left the LRA in 2012 than the previous three years combined, and lower-level fighters have defected in record numbers.
- Killings attributed to the LRA dropped by 67 percent from 2011 to 2012.
- Two high-ranking commanders of the LRA, Maj. Gen. Ceasar Acellam and Lt. Col. Vincent Binansio “Binani” Okumu, have been caught.
- In January, the U.S. Congress passed the bipartisan “Rewards for Justice” bill, which was signed into law by President Obama and effectively placed a bounty of up to $5 million on Kony’s head. President Obama also recommitted American Special Forces and authorized more resources to help go after Kony last April.
And, Invisible Children claims, Kony is feeling the heat. As a result of the campaign launched against him, the warlord has gone into hiding in the jungles of Central Africa.
“Evidence suggests that Kony is in the border region of Sudan and CAR. Invisible Children donors have been funding the creation and expansion of HF radio networks across the conflict region for the last two years,” West said, adding that Invisible Children has been funding the creation and expansion of HF radio towers across the conflict region for the last two years, which are used to provide early warning to remote communities and record LRA activities and in turn, locate Kony.
Joseph Kony is one of the most notorious guerrilla leaders in the world. He’s been accused by government entities of abducting children to become sex slaves and soldiers. It is estimated that he recruited 66,000 children to become soldiers in the cult-like LRA. Kony was indicted for crimes against humanity in 2005 by the International Criminal Court located in the Hague.
Jason Russell, …read more
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Congo deploys 500 soldiers to hunt Ugandan warlord
The African Union says Congo has sent 500 troops to join a Uganda-led military effort to hunt down Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group.
The troops were handed over in a ceremony Wednesday, the African Union said in a statement received Friday, bringing to 3,350 the number of African soldiers deployed against the LRA.
Uganda, South Sudan and the Central African Republic have already contributed troops to an African Union military program conceived last year to eliminate the LRA from the vast jungles of central Africa. They are assisted by about 100 U.S. military advisers.
The LRA watchdog group Enough Project says the military mission against the LRA, a brutal group that recruits children, needs more boots on the ground.
Kony's LRA killing fewer civilians, group finds
A group that tracks the Josephy Kony-led Lord’s Resistance Army says the group killed 51 civilians across Central Africa in 2012, a huge drop in the number killed from two years previous.
President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. advisers to help in the hunt for Kony and the LRA in late 2011, but the report released Thursday by the LRA Crisis Tracker did not say if their presence helped reduce the number of attacks.
The group said that the 51 civilians killed last year is the lowest number since 2007. It said the LRA killed 706 civilians in 2010 and 154 in 2011.
The LRA carried out attacks within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Obo — where U.S. advisers are stationed — twice in 2012, the report said.
LRA rebel group losing men through defections
An online organization that tracks the crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Army says the rebel group is losing fighters through defections encouraged by United States military advisers.
The LRA Crisis Tracker said Monday that at least 19 LRA fighters defected in the last nine months. In the same period a senior rebel commander was captured while another was killed.
The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, a brutal warlord who catapulted to global fame last year when the U.S. charity Invisible Children made a popular online video highlighting his crimes. About 100 U.S. special forces are helping African troops to hunt down Kony. Only about 200 LRA fighters are still active, according to Ugandan officials, but the rebels still abduct civilians in Congo and the Central African Republic.
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UN plans to use spy drones over eastern Congo
The Security Council has approved the use of surveillance drones over eastern Congo to monitor roving militias so it can more effectively deploy U.N. peacekeepers.
A letter released Thursday from the president of the Security Council to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the council members note the robot spy planes will be used “on a case-by-case basis” and will not set a precedent for the U.N.’s general consideration of “legal, financial and technical implications of the use of unmanned aerial systems.”
The letter from Pakistan U.N. Ambassador Masood Khan, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency, was released as a U.N. expert launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida.
Civilian killings and injuries that result from drone strikes on suspected terrorist cells will be part of the focus of the investigation by British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the U.N. rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. The U.N. said Emmerson will present his findings to the U.N. General Assembly later this year.
The U.N.’s spy drones over Congo would be unarmed.
Ban proposed in December that the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo be supplied with “intervention” troops, night-vision equipment, surveillance drones with cameras and enhanced river patrols.
The proposals are aimed at improving the protection of civilians from the threat of armed groups in Congo‘s vast mineral-rich eastern region, which has been engulfed in fighting since the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The Security Council wants to beef up the U.N. peacekeeping force known as MONUSCO, which has more than 17,700 U.N. peacekeepers and over 1,400 international police, following last year’s takeover of many villages and towns in eastern Congo by M23 rebels who briefly held Goma before withdrawing in early December.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous had previously faced opposition from neighboring Rwanda, which is believed to be backing the M23, especially on the possible deployment of unarmed drones. Diplomats said Russia was among the other countries raising concerns about the use of drones.
The Rwandan government denies any support for the M23, which is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic group that was targeted for extermination by Hutu militias during the Rwanda genocide. Since withdrawing from Goma, M23 has taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.
Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the consultations were closed, said France, Britain, the U.S. and other Western countries back the deployment of drones and other advanced equipment in eastern Congo, saying it would enhance the ability of peacekeepers to track armed groups and help protect U.N. forces from ambushes.
U.N. officials say drones could also be useful in other African conflicts and possibly in the search in Central Africa for leaders and members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal gang of jungle militiamen headed by warlord Joseph Kony, who is accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
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African troops kill rebel who guarded warlord Kony
A spokesman for the Ugandan military says Ugandan troops in the Central African Republic have killed the chief bodyguard of Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Ugandan Col. Felix Kulayigye said Monday that the bodyguard, who was also a rebel commander known only as Binani, was among a small group of rebels when he was killed in a firefight Friday 280 kilometers (175 miles) north of Djema, a base in the Central African Republic where Uganda-led African Union troops are being advised by U.S. forces.
Kulayigye said it is “unfortunate” that Binani, who is believed to have been a member of the LRA‘s high command, was not captured alive. He might have shared intelligence on Kony, about whom there is little new information, Kulayigye said.
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Ugandan, US forces hunting LRA welcome CAR truce
Ugandan and U.S forces who are pursuing the leader of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army in the Central African Republic say a recent rebellion has not affected their operations.
Officials said they welcome a peace deal signed with rebels anyway.
The deal signed last week puts an end to any fears that a flare-up in violence in the landlocked country would influence the hunt for LRA leader Joseph Kony. President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. special forces to help advise in the hunt about a year ago.
Col. Felix Kulayigye, Uganda‘s military spokesman, said he believes the anti-LRA work will continue unhindered.
Daniel Travis, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Uganda, said the rebel-government fighting had no effect on the hunt for Kony.
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UN wants to use surveillance drones in Congo
The United Nations outlined its case to the Security Council Tuesday to use surveillance drones in Congo for the first time but ran into opposition from neighboring Rwanda which is believed to be backing rebels who recently took control of many towns in the conflict-wracked east.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous asked the council to support the deployment of drones to help the more than 17,700 U.N. peacekeepers and over 1,400 international police in the vast country carry out their main mission of protecting civilians, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
Congolese army troops were unable to halt the M23 rebels who took control of many villages and towns in the mineral-rich east and briefly held the key eastern city of Goma before withdrawing in early December. The peacekeeping force — the largest of the U.N.’s 15 global operations — did little to protect the tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom fled their homes.
Brieuc Pont, the spokesman for France‘s U.N. Mission, tweeted that “the U.N. in Congo needs additional and modern assets, including drones, to be better informed and more reactive.”
But Rwanda‘s U.N. Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana said his government and others have legitimate concerns about the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, especially before an assessment from the U.N. Secretariat later this year on the legal, technical and financial implications of using UAVs.
“It might have a precedence on other countries,” Gasana told several reporters after the meeting. “We owe them a kind of explanation. It is about human beings, it is not about ‘Star Wars.’ We need this new technology, but at which cost?”
Drones are being increasingly used in Western military operations but there are suspicions, especially in developing nations, that they will become a new intelligence-gathering tool for the West.
Rwanda raised its concern in the closed session that drone inspections would make the U.N. a belligerent force, which wouldn’t contribute to the safety of U.N. peacekeepers, one diplomat said. Diplomats said Pakistan, where U.S. drones have been used against suspected terrorists, also voiced concerns about their use in Congo at the council meeting.
The diplomats said France, Britain, the U.S. and other Western countries back the deployment of drones in eastern Congo, saying it would enhance the ability of peacekeepers to track armed groups and help protect U.N. forces from ambushes. U.N. officials say drones could also be useful in other African conflicts and possibly in the search in Central Africa for leaders and members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal gang of jungle militiamen headed by warlord Joseph Kony which has been accused of carrying out massacres, mutilating victims and using children as soldiers and sex slaves.
Eastern Congo has been engulfed in fighting since the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which at least 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias before a Tutsi-led rebel army took power in Rwanda. More than 1 million Rwandan Hutus fled across the border into Congo, and Rwanda has invaded Congo to take action against Hutu militias there. The exploitation of Congo‘s mineral resources continues to exacerbate conflict and instability on the ground.
The M23 rebel group is made up of hundreds of mainly Tutsi soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April. A U.N. group of experts reported in November that M23 is backed by Rwanda, which has provided them with battalions of fighters and sophisticated arms, like night vision goggles. Rwanda denies supporting and arming the rebel group.
Since withdrawing from Goma, M23 has taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.
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