Lord's Resistance Army

A number of central African countries overwhelmed by the brutal attacks and mounting regional destabilization caused by the external pageLord’s Resistance Army (LRA)call_made have established a comprehensive external pageplancall_made to combat the rebel group. Ministers from Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic agreed Friday in a meeting in Bangui, the capital of the latter, to create a joint military task force, centre of operations, and border patrol capacity, all to be supervised by a representative from the African Union.      

The ministers also external pagearrangedcall_made to modify the official status of the LRA from a rebel group to a ‘terrorist’ organization, a move intended to increase the level of shared funds allocated for the offensive and to raise the level of judicial cooperation among the four countries.

The Bangui meeting took place only days after an LRA external pageattackcall_made on the border town of Birao in the northeast of the Central African Republic, where rebels allegedly raided shops, set fires, and forcibly took a number of children with them, including young girls. LRA rebels are frequently accused of using kidnapped boys as child soldiers, many of whom are made to commit external pageunspeakably violentcall_made initiation rituals, while young girls are often external pageforcedcall_made into sex slavery.

Led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed ‘prophet’, the LRA was formed in the late 1980s with the intention of overthrowing the Ugandan government and replacing it with a regime dedicated to the ‘biblical principles’ of the Ten Commandments. In recent years, however, its mission has widened to include targets in neighboring countries. The group has been external pageaccusedcall_made of egregious human rights violations wherever it operates.

The openSecurity verdict:  According to external pageremarkscall_made made on Friday by a spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for refugees, the LRA ‘campaign of terror’ has ‘intensified’ in recent months, with 344 people killed by the group in more than 240 individual attacks so far this year. Roughly 2,000 deaths can be directly attributed to rebel acts since 2008, with over 2,600 kidnapped and more than 400,000 displaced. Lack of infrastructure and security frequently delays the assessment of needs and the delivery of vital aid to targeted areas. Traumatized victims are often too frightened to return to their communities and farms. Because of this, crops are not planted and harvests are not collected. The attacks thus make the regional economy more dependentexternal page[DM1]call_made  on outside assistance.

The establishment of a joint military force is a promising development and appears to be modeled on a proposal in a external pagerecent reportcall_made by Human Rights Watch (HRW) about LRA atrocities in northeastern Congo. The report laid out in external pagegrim detailscall_made the massacre in the Mokombo area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which at least 321 people were killed, ‘one of the worst…ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history’. In response to the mounting violence, HRW suggested, among other recommendations, the creation of a ‘comprehensive regional strategy’ between the four countries directly battling the rebels, with the protection of civilians and rescue of abducted persons a ‘priority’ in any military campaigns.

But as is often the case with complex conflicts, more steps can and must be taken. The head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo external pagesaid recentlycall_made that the UN peacekeeping mission there, external pageMONUSCOcall_made, should do more to protect civilians in areas where the LRA operates. ‘MONUSCO is failing tens of thousands of people in urgent need of protection and assistance," he said. With UN and national forces themselves external pageguiltycall_made of human rights abuses in the region, it will be necessary that whatever additional forces are deployed act with professionalism and discipline if the deployments are to lead to an improvement in the lives of local civilians.

Indeed, though it is the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world, it is still vastly overstretched, with only 22,016 uniformed personnel authorized to stabilize an enormous territory. The head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece, external pageadmittedcall_made as much: ‘In this vast area, larger than Afghanistan, it is not possible for MONUSCO to ensure full protection for all civilians…To approach this goal would require vastly greater force levels and resources."

Close regional cooperation between the governments, militaries, international humanitarian outfits, and non-governmental operations is the key to a successful offensive against the LRA. In an interesting development, a recent piece of external pagelegislationcall_made passed by the US Senate and currently before the US House of Representatives requires the White House to ‘develop a regional strategy to protect civilians in central Africa from attacks by the LRA, work to apprehend the LRA leadership, and support economic recovery for northern Uganda’. It was passed unanimously, though it remains to be seen what effect any such policy will have on the conflict if enacted into law.