Are the days of Lord's Resistance Army numbered?

The hounds seem to be closing in on Joseph Kony and his horde of dreadlocked young rebels, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), which has created havoc in Central Africa for over twenty years. Will the dreaded captor soon become a helpless captive?

On November 17 the UN Security Council condemned the increasing attacks of the LRA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Sudan. The Austrian ambassador, Thomas Mayr-Harting, who this month holds the council’s presidency, said: “The attacks have resulted in the death, abduction and displacement of thousands of civilians.”

The 15 members of the Security Council also praised the increased cooperation of regional governments in dealing with the threat posed by the LRA, and asked them to cooperate with the United Nations to protect the civilians in the area. In December last year, Kony’s headquarters in Garamba Forest, DRC, were attacked by the Ugandan army in a US-supported strike but the rebel army was not badly enough hurt to surrender. As a result the rebels scattered and regrouped in the countries neighboring north-east DRC, except in their original base, northern Uganda. This has created further instability in the region, as Kony’s forces have abducted boys and girls as fighting reinforcements and “wives”, burned down settlements, and murdered and raped villagers.

For the first time, the Council called on all UN missions to “co-ordinate strategies for and information on the protection of civilians in light of the attacks by the LRA.” The missions include MONUC (UN Mission in the DRC), UNMIS (in Sudan), MINURCAT (in CAR and Chad), UNAMID (African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur) and BONUCA (UN Peace-building Office in the CAR).

The Security Council also reiterated their demand that the LRA immediately cease all attacks on civilians and surrender, assemble and disarm, as required by the Final Peace Agreement signed 3 years ago with the Ugandan government.

A member of the Ugandan delegation at the New York mission noted: “This positive development is due to the heightened pressure that Uganda is mobilizing at the Security Council to deal with the LRA menace.”

On Wednesday the Ugandan army said it had killed another commander of the LRA in the Central African Republic. “We killed Lt Col Okello Ogutti who is the main commander of LRA’s eastern forces,” said Lt Col Felix Kulayigye, the Ugandan Defence and Army spokesman.

The previous day, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the “LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009”. The Bill, whose aim is to “eliminate the threat posed by the LRA”, would empower the Obama Administration to coordinate a strategy which includes the provision of military, intelligence and humanitarian assistance to countries like Uganda, DR Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan to fight the rebels.

Lt Col Kulayigye said the Ugandan army was keen to get assistance to boost its own efforts: “Our unique effort is that while the targeting of LRA commanders continues, the door for Joseph Kony is still open,” he said.

One of the sponsors of the Bill is Russ Feingold, the chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Sub-Committee on Africa. In his statement on Tuesday he said: “For too long, Kony and the LRA have terrorized innocent civilians across four countries of Africa.”

The Bill, which must be passed in both Houses, was welcomed by human rights NGOs. “The lack of an effective international response to these atrocities is an outrage,” said Michael Poffenberger, the Executive Director of the Washington-based advocacy organization, Resolve Uganda. In the past year LRA rebels have abducted close to a thousand children in the region.

“This Bill offers an opportunity to put civilian protection where it should be, at the top of the agenda,” said Jon Elliott, Africa Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch. It provides $40 m for humanitarian assistance, $30 m of which is for peace and reconciliation in northern Uganda, where the LRA killed, maimed and abducted almost at will for nearly twenty years.

At the height of the rebellion, almost 2 million people were precariously accommodated in displacement camps in northern Uganda, an estimated 30,000 children abducted into the rebel army and thousands killed in surprise massacres. Many child soldiers have since escaped, but, like the hundreds of maimed and raped survivors, are having to cope with trauma and being accepted back into the community. On the surface life is getting back to normal in northern Uganda, thanks to the work of many NGOs and the resilience of the people themselves.

Kony himself has managed to elude all attempts at his capture, and argues that as long as the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court holds, he refuses to come out of the bush, but will increase his army to foment instability in the region and eventually oust the present Ugandan regime.

Martyn Drakard is a writer based in Kenya and Uganda.