THE LORD’S RESISTANCE ARMY

Joseph Kony (born 1961?) Ugandan rebel who led the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a
militia that terrorized northern Uganda and neighbouring countries in the late 20th and
early 21st centuries. Kony was reared in the village of Odek in northern Uganda. An
ethnic Acholi, he served as an altar boy during his youth and was fond of dancing. He
left school to become a traditional healer. When Yoweri Museveni seized power in
Uganda in 1986 and became president, some Acholis revolted. A relative of Kony’s,
spirit medium Alice Lakwena, led a rebel group called the Holy Spirit Movement, which
was quashed by government troops as it advanced on Kampala, the capital.

Kony joined another faction and in 1987 proclaimed himself a prophet for the Acholi
people and took charge of the Holy Spirit Movement, which would eventually become
the LRA. In its early years the LRA enjoyed support in northern Uganda, but as its
resources diminished, the militia began to plunder the local population. The movement
gained considerable strength in 1994 when it received the backing of the government of
Sudan, which sought to retaliate against Kampala for its support of Sudanese rebels.

Kony, armed with prophecies that he said he received from spirits who came to him in
dreams, ordered the LRA to attack villages, murdering, raping, and mutilating in a
campaign of intimidation that displaced some two million people. Children were
abducted and brainwashed into becoming soldiers and slaves. Kony convinced them
that holy water made them bulletproof. Children who resisted or tried to escape were
beaten to death by their peers.

Kony was reported to have taken more than 50 of his female captives as “wives.” By
1996 the government began setting up secure camps. Children living in villages in
northern Uganda became known as “night commuters,” walking miles every evening to
the relative safety of the camps or towns in hopes of avoiding abduction. Kony’s aim for
the LRA was never particularly specific beyond the ouster of Museveni and the
establishment of a new government based on the Ten commandments.

Goals/Objectives: Joseph Kony established the LRA in 1988 with the claim of restoring
the honor of his ethnic Acholi people and to install a government based on his personal
version of the Ten Commandments.

Motivation:

LRA has had the desire and is motivated by the objective of wanting to secede from
Uganda and establish its own theocratic state that will be driven by the Ten
Commandments and the traditional practice of the Acholi people.

Form of Terrorism: Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) soldiers quickly gained a reputation
for murder, torture, rape, and mutilations aimed primarily at Acholi communities, as well
as abducting tens of thousands of children over the years to use as sex slaves and child
soldiers.

Funding:

LRA fighters are well-trained and highly disciplined. The leadership has evaded capture
for 25 years, despite often being in close proximity to the Ugandan army or other armed
forces, raising questions about the Ugandan army’s capabilities and aims. Currently, the
LRA operates across a large and extremely remote area with poor infrastructure.

Despite successive military campaigns against the group over the years, the LRA has
proven remarkably resilient and able to regroup to continue attacks against civilians. In
2006 the United Nations Peacekeeping force in Congo, MONUC, deployed Guatemalan
special forces to capture one of Kony’s deputies, Vincent Otti, also wanted by the ICC,
but they were unsuccessful and eight Guatemalan peacekeepers died. The serious loss
discouraged UN peacekeepers from further operations against the LRA.

In 2008 peace agreements were negotiated in Juba, South Sudan, but Kony repeatedly
failed to sign them. In December the governments in the region, led by the Ugandan
army, with intelligence and logistical support from the United States, launched a military
campaign against LRA bases in Garamba National Park in northeastern Congo. The
campaign, called Operation Lightning Thunder, was put into action with a surprise aerial
strike on the main LRA camp where Kony was believed to be located. The strike failed
to neutralize the LRA leaders, who escaped

Although the exact location of the LRA’s leaders is difficult to pinpoint, much about the
LRA’s structure, capabilities, and the leaders’ approximate locations is often known to
governments in the region, the UN, and nongovernmental organizations active on the
issue. What has been lacking are the appropriate means and will to put this information
to use in a timely and effective manner by countries capable of conducting a law
enforcement operation to apprehend the LRA’s leaders.

Current Status:
The Lord’s Resistance Army is a Ugandan rebel group currently operating in the border
region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic
(CAR), and South Sudan.

Supporters

Starting in the mid-1990s, the LRA was strengthened by military support from the
government of Sudan, which was retaliating against Ugandan government support for
rebels in what would become South Sudan.

Notable Attacks

In 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for top commanders of
the Lord’s Resistance Army for crimes against humanity.

In August 2008, the US declared Kony a global terrorist, a designation that carries
financial and other penalties.

The Lord’s Resistance Army was eventually forced out of Uganda following the failed
Juba peace talks of 2006-2008 between the group’s leadership and the Ugandan
government. The talks were mediated by the government of southern Sudan.

Kony and his militia went into hiding in the DRC. In December 2008, Uganda, DRC and
Sudan launched an offensive dubbed Operation Lightning Thunder to track them down.

Kony’s rebel group attacked Congolese civilians suspected of supporting the operation.
Villagers were raped, their limbs mutilated and hundreds killed. The group eventually
splintered to evade capture, with most members escaping into the Central African
Republic.

Uganda called off the operation in March 2009, saying the Lord’s Resistance Army was
at its weakest point ever.

In November 2013, Central African Republic officials reported that Kony was ready to
negotiate his surrender. He was reported to be in poor health in Nzoka, a town in the
country’s eastern region. He never showed up.
By 2017, the rebel group’s membership had shrunk to an estimated 100 soldiers. In
April that year, the US and Ugandan governments ended efforts to find Kony. They
stated he no longer posed a significant security risk to Uganda. But he is still wanted by
the International Criminal Court.

Leadership

Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), militant group led by Joseph Kony that has waged a war
of attrition against the government and peoples of Uganda and nearby countries since
the late 1980s.

Joseph Rao Kony (born c. 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA), designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations
Peacekeepers, the European Union, and various other governments.

Joseph Kony established the LRA in 1988 with the claim of restoring the honor of his
ethnic Acholi people and to install a government based on his personal version of the
Ten Commandments.

Kony’s exact location, however, remains unknown. He’s thought to be hiding in the vast
jungles of the Central African Republic or in Sudan. While attempts to bring Kony to
justice continue, post-conflict northern Uganda is on the slow path to economic and
social recovery.

Between December 2008 – March 2009, the armed forces of Uganda, DR Congo and
South Sudan launched aerial attacks and raids on the LRA camps in Garamba,
destroying them. The efforts to inflict a military defeat on the LRA were not fully
successful. The U.S.-supported Operation Lightning Thunder against the LRA.

Reference

https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/democratic-citizenship/who-is-
joseph-kony-the-altar-boy-who-became-africas-most-wanted-man#:~:text=In
%202013%20and%202021%2C%20the,find%20Africa’s%20most%20wanted
%20fugitive
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Kony

https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/lra.html

https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/21/qa-joseph-kony-and-lords-resistance-army

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lords-Resistance-Army#:~:text=Lord’s
%20Resistance%20Army%20(LRA)%2C,countries%20since%20the%20late
%201980s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army#:~:text=Between
%20December%202008%20%E2%80%93%20March%202009,Lightning
%20Thunder%20against%20the%20LRA.