DR Congo: Sister Angélique Namaika defeats the LRA.

All Africa reports

Congo-Kinshasa: Former Lord's Resistance Army Slave Now Sings a Joyful Tune

                                                                             Sister Angélique Namaika

Dungu — Monique's* voice is loud and clear, ringing out from a small lively choir of young people outside a church in the remote town of Dungu in the heart of Africa.

Clapping and dancing, she and her friends are rehearsing for Sunday's service. But just four years ago, the 18-year-old had nothing to sing and dance about and thought she would die.

In 2009, she became one of the tens of thousands of women abducted and physically and sexually abused by the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, a twisted and misguided Ugandan rebel group that has left a trail of misery in the Great Lakes region over the past quarter century. More than 320,000 people are still displaced.

It is hard to know whether Joseph Kony is still alive but I am betting he is. The Ugandan army has been hunting for him in the Central African Republic ( CAR ) reportedly with American special forces. 

She was snatched with five other teenage girls when the LRA attacked their village, Duru, some 90 kilometres from Dungu in Orientale province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 14-year-old's stepfather was killed in front of her and her pregnant mother beaten so badly that she miscarried.

The girls were taken to live in the bush and become the sex objects of LRA warriors. "When we were taken, we were given to men. Mine was much older than me and was married. At night he wanted to sleep with me by force and if I refused he would beat me," Monique recalls. "I felt very bad when he took me by force. I felt bad because I was still a virgin. I thought I was dying," the young woman adds.

LRA warriors ? These guys are so far from warriors as to make that statement laughable. As the Mirror reports many of them were kids when they were abducted.  

" Like more than 30,000 other children brainwashed by notorious militia leader Joseph Kony he was transformed into a bloodthirsty assassin eager to commit atrocities.

Charles’ confessed crimes are truly grotesque. Once he tied eight people together, poured petrol over them and burned them alive.

Another time the 27-year-old cut out his victim’s brain and ate it.

As recently as January he wiped out six innocent civilians in a hail of bullets without any provocation."

Monique thought she had been condemned to spend her life as a slave of the LRA and this old, violent man.

The Lord's Resistance Army first appeared in Uganda in 1987 and soon earned a name as a brutal rebel group that kidnapped children. It has been active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2005, and has killed more than 2,000 people and abducted about 3,000 there in the past eight years.

The current thinking is CAR but the border between the DR Congo and CAR is porous. The truth is he could be anywhere in the region.

Life in the bush was brutal. Beatings and murder were commonplace. But Monique was relatively lucky: after many months of captivity, she was rescued by Congolese troops as she was out foraging for food with LRA fighters.

From the same Mirror article.

" His gaze is unflinching as he speaks of being force-marched into Sudan after his kidnapping.

“I was badly beaten and threatened with a gun,” he says. “For weeks we walked and along the way they abducted other children. They tied us together with rope.

“We walked day and night with few chances to drink or eat – some children became too weak.

“One man would point his gun at whoever was complaining and pull the trigger. More than 10 children were killed along the way.

“When we got to Sudan we met Joseph Kony for the first time. He said everyone there had been kidnapped from Uganda. He said he had been abducted by God and if any of us tried to escape we would be killed.

“Right then, he pulled one boy out of the line and told his commander to shoot him dead in front of us.”

The soldiers brought her to Dungu in the hope that she would find some relatives there. The optimism was well placed as Monique found her mother and little brother. But her joy was short lived. After two months, she discovered that she was pregnant.

It was a total shock and too much for her to deal with. "I did not know what to do. Go to the hospital to get an abortion or keep the child," Monique says. As she wrestled with her emotions at this pivotal moment, Sister Angélique Namaika, the winner of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award this year for outstanding service for the forcibly displaced, came into Monique's life and gave her advice that would change her life.

The comforting and sympathetic Roman Catholic nun convinced the pregnant young woman to keep the baby and to learn to love him. Sister Angélique had arrived in Dungu in 2003 to conduct pastoral work with other nuns, but since 2008 she has been dedicating her time to helping girls and women who have suffered at the hands of the LRA. She was herself forced to flee LRA violence in 2009.

I re-posted an All Africa story yesterday about Sister Angelique on this blog. She is an amazing woman. Knowing that Sister Angelique and the many other hero's that I have blogged about here is something that restores my faith in humanity.

"I was very happy to have kept the boy," says Monique, who was amazed at the goodness and wisdom of this gentle nun from the village of Kembisa in Orientale Province, and says that she had never met anyone so kind and generous.

Sister Angélique not only gave Monique advice about her child, she also started to teach her a trade - sewing - that would help her to become independent and earn vital money to stay alive and bring up her child.

Monique now makes school uniforms and other clothes. She hopes that with the income from sales she will soon be able to buy a bicycle that will allow her to make house calls and deliveries and build up her client base.

"With the money I make, I pay for food and medical care. I have my own sewing machine and I use it a lot," she says, adding that her dream now is to one day send her son to school. "I am optimistic about the future," she concludes with a smile.

The world owes it to Monique and the thousands of other kids lives Kony has ruined to bring the bastard to justice.

Uganda: Hunting Kony

The Daily Monitor ( Uganda ) reports

Uganda, US troops find tusks in CAR

Kampala

                                                      Photo Virunga National Park DR Congo

The UPDF and American Special forces in Central African Republic have discovered a cache of elephant tusks reportedly hidden by LRA fighters north of Djema Town.

A statement issued on Thursday by the UPDF spokesperson, Col. Felix Kulayigye, said the discovery followed a tip-off by an LRA defector, who reported that the rebels maintained caches of ivory tusks and identified the approximate location.“A US Embassy Bangui representative contacted officials at the CAR Ministry of Forests and Water, who indicated that the ministry was unable to reach the remote location to secure the tusks,” he explained.

Given the political situation in CAR at the moment it is unsurprising that the Government is unable to do very much. The national unity government has been in place just over a week.

The discovery corroborates reports that LRA is involved in trading elephant tusks, which are reportedly taken to Darfur and exported. One kilogramme of ivory can sell for more than $1000 and the price keeps going higher.

In 2011, 38.8 tonnes of illegal ivory was seized by authorities worldwide, equaling the tusks of more than 4,000 dead elephants.

Last year, the UPDF was implicated in the killing of elephants in DR Congo but Col. Kulayigye said the discovery of ivory in Djema exonerates them. “It should be recalled that some so-called researchers had accused the disciplined UPDF of poaching, yet back home we are well known conservationists,” he said.

Col. Kulayigye said the tusks were handed over to the CAR government. “Together with our US allies, we are in contact with CAR officials to fully account for, and dispose of, the tusks in accordance with international law and treaty obligations,” Col. Kulayigye said.

That means that they should be burned. I can understand the rational behind that but it seems to me at least to be a waste of valuable ivory and I doubt it does much to discourage poaching. The LRA is prepared to kill humans on a huge scale they are not going to hesitate to kill elephants.

When asked for more details on LRA’s involvement in the trade, he said: “I don’t know the details of the trade-that is speculation.”

Last week, Resolve, a US based advocacy organisation released a report, saying the LRA was becoming weaker but still remains a regional security threat.

Ending the activity of the LRA should be a priority for the world. Joseph Kony and his followers should be hunted down or brought in front of the ICC personally I don't much care which option is exercised. 

The UPDF, backed by American forces are in the region to fight the Ugandan rebels group. The rebels shifted base to the CAR in 2008, following the Operation Lightning thunder that flashed them out of their base in Garamba Forest in the eastern DR Congo.

The LRA was originally based in northern Uganda, where it fought with government, displacing about 1.5 million people, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands others. 

The sooner justice is visited on Kony the better.

Africa. " God's" Gunmen A few less please.

Al Jazeera reports

African Union hunts Uganda rebel group

AU force to co-ordinate soldiers from regional armies hunting Lord's Resistance Army, but troops still lack resources.

                 The forces lead by self-styled mystique leader Joseph Kony are believed to be dwindling [AP]

An African Union (AU) backed force has officially assumed command of operations against Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), officials said.

Major Alex Ahabyona, an intelligence officer for LRA leader Joseph Kony operation, said the ceremony to launch the move took place on Tuesday in the South Sudanese town of Nzara.

Good this guy need to face justice for his many crimes. The world needs a few less of these 
" Gunmen of God " along with a few less movie and cartoon creators. 

But officials say a scarcity of resources and unresolved disagreements over troop deployments still pose major impediments.

The AU force aims to co-ordinate soldiers already hunting LRA from Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

Remember this is the same AU that thinks it can sort out the mess in the eastern DR Congo

Led by Kony, a self-styled mystique leader, the LRA has been waging a brutal campaign of abductions, rapes and defilement in a lightly governed remote patch of jungle straddling the borders of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan since it was ejected from Northern Uganda in 2005.

The LRA's notoriety was cast in a global spotlight earlier this year after a controversial video highlighting its brutality became an instant internet sensation and was viewed by tens of millions of people.

Lets not forget what this Man Kony is accused of. Since 1987, Kony is believed to have recruited between 60,000 and 100,000 child soldiers and displaced around 2 million people 


At a command handover ceremony in Yambio, AU's special envoy on the LRA, Francisco Madeira, said the DRC had still not contributed troops but some commitments had been made and said the force required assistance to help it function properly.
"We need more support, I don't have to elaborate on these because my predecessor has done this so well. We need support in terms of means of transport, communication, medicine, combat rations and uniforms for the troops tracking the LRA. This is particularly important and critical and most urgent for the central African troops who handed over their contingent despite the challenges facing them," Madeira said.

I suspect the DR Congo is already over stretched trying to deal with the Rwandan backed insurgency in the eastern DR Congo.

In hiding
Although all the regional armies have been involved in fighting the LRA, it is the Ugandan army that has pursued him up to the Central African Republic, where he is currently believed to be hiding.
At the same ceremony, Uganda's defence minister, Chrispus Kiyonga, said there were still disagreements over areas of operation by troops from different countries.
"We are yet to fully agree on how this troops will operate because now they are going to be one force, a regional task force with its commander," Kiyonga said.

Seriously these guys criticise the UN for being disorganised.

"There are two concepts: There are people who think that the SPLA [Sudan People Liberation Army] should only work on the side of Sudan, that the army of the Central African Republic should only work there [within its own borders] ... but there is the other concept that some of us support, [which is] that once there is one unified force, co-ordinated force then it should go wherever Kony is. We think that way, it will be more effective."

It would be far more effective but will it happen ?

Kiyonga said the latest intelligence indicated LRA was now down to 200 guns and that the entire group was numbering about 500 people including women and children in rebel captivity.
Barack Obama, the US president, injected momentum in anti-LRA efforts last October when he sent 100 Special Forces to help provide intelligence and training support to the regional armies.

Kony can run but he can not hide.

Catching Killers

From the BBC

" Deep in the jungle of the Central African Republic, about 2,000 Ugandan troops are spearheading the campaign to catch Joseph Kony.

Hacking through the jungle with machetes, they lead us to a camp abandoned just two weeks earlier by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the rebel group commanded by Kony, who claims to be fighting to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical 10 Commandments.

A rebel defector led the Ugandan army to the camp, which would have housed between 50-60 fighters, including women and children.

Among the children was a five-year-old boy, said to be Kony's son, and his mother Doreen Abango. She was abducted by the LRA aged 13, and had managed to escape only 10 days earlier.

"I started walking at night with my child… I did not leave any tracks that could be used to follow me, because I knew if I was found I would be killed," she said."

The ICC has warrants out against Kony for crimes against humanity.

" 'Strange child'

Few in northern Uganda escaped unscathed from Kony's war, including his own family.

His older sister Gabriela Lakot still lives in Odek, northern Uganda, where Kony was born.

"As soon as Kony was born he stood on his own two feet," she says. "Everyone was astonished and wondrous saying: 'This child is strange.'

"God has brought a curse on this family - that was my mother's lament. Kony brought so much trouble on us up to now. Everyone hates us."

Gabriela also blames her brother for the death of her son.

"My first born was shot by the Ugandan army when he was with Kony. All that is his fault," she said.

Kony's rebels have terrorised swathes of South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic over the years.

It is estimated by the Ugandan army that there are only 450 members of the LRA left.

Caesar Achellam, a senior LRA commander, was captured in May this year. He says Kony will never surrender because of indictments in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"Kony is afraid, he is really afraid. He is afraid of the accusations against him in The Hague," he said.

Kony is wanted by the ICC for war crimes including rape, the murder of civilians and forcibly recruiting children to serve in his Lord's Resistance Army."

His crimes are detailed on Wikipedia

'Die like Hitler'

Kony's global notoriety increased earlier this year because of the internet video Kony 2012, which has been watched tens of millions of times since it was posted online by the US advocacy group Invisible Children.

The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is clear that more foreign support is needed to bring Kony to justice.

He said: "We are now an international mission. It is not a domestic mission and we cannot be an international mission on domestic resources. It is up to the international community to help."

An African Union force of 5,000 troops from the four countries most affected by the LRA was due to begin operations in March, but it has not happened yet.

Ugandan minister Betty Bigombe is one of many African leaders who have tried and failed to talk Kony into making peace.

According to Ms Bigombe, Kony himself predicted how the war would end: "He would tell me, I know exactly how I am going to die. I am going to die like Hitler.

"One day people will wake up and find that I have been dead for some time."

That time can't come soon enough.