Lord’s Resistance Army is Big Business
By modest estimates, the Lord’s Resistance
Army (LRA) has killed 100, 000 people, majority from Uganda but others from
neighboring countries of Sudan/South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
and Central Africa Republic (CAR). It has displaced about two million, and
raped, mutilated or abducted countless others. This includes many children, who
have been forced to become soldiers or sex slaves for LRA fighters. Its
barbaric methods include dismembering its victims and slashing off noses, lips,
ears and limbs. But what is surprising is that Joseph Kony, LRA’s self-styled
Christian mystic (though in reality a homicidal psychopath) has somehow eluded
death or capture for decades, even with huge investments in the search for him,
that involves among others, the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) and a US
special force. Its survival and fortunes seem to wax and wane in line with
complex resource based regional politics.
His arch-enemy, Uganda’s President Yoweri
Museveni, threw everything at the LRA, eventually driving it out of its
birthplace in northern Uganda in 2006. But, like the cancer that it is, the LRA
has somehow managed to entrench itself and continue to operate in neighboring
countries, especially DRC and CAR. But recent increased action by LRA is
worrisome. In 2015 alone, the LRA conducted an estimated 198 attacks, killing
14 people and abducting an estimated 662 civilians. In 2016, LRA has already
carried out 200 attacks, killed 19 people and abducting 679 people. This is
certainly and upward trend that must worry any concerned person.
Whereas many actors downplay the
possibility of LRA ever regaining its peak strength, what really stops Kony’s
LRA from regaining its former numbers and strength? It is time for hard
questions. What is LRA’s exact mission? What is it currently involved in? Who
supports LRA and why? What is the role of LRA in the lucrative illegal natural
resource business in the region? Who does not want Kony arrested and why? Or
Simply who benefits from this entrepreneurship -The Kony-LRA Multinational
Corporation?”
Lord’s Resistance Army is Big Business
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
July 13, 2016
Rating:
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