CYAA CAPCHA KONY

Kony Evades Capture in Central Africa Amid Internet Campaign

March 14 (Bloomberg) — Joseph Kony, the Ugandan warlord who’s become the subject of a global social-network campaign, is evading capture amid tensions between Central African nations where his Lord’s Resistance Army operates.

Kony and his fighters fanned out across the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo after fleeing northern Uganda six years ago. The armies of the four nations disagree about the threat posed by the LRA, slowing the progress to apprehend Kony, said Ned Dalby, a regional analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, an independent advocacy group.

“A major problem facing the operation is the mutual mistrust between Congo and Uganda at both the political and military levels,” Dalby said from Accra, the Ghanaian capital. “What’s really needed is sustained institutional and multilateral pressure from western countries, the United Nations and the African Union on the governments of Uganda and Congo primarily, but also on the South Sudanese” and the Central African Republic.

Kony, whose official age isn’t known, has been on the run since being indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 on charges including murder, mutilation, rape and the abduction of 30,000 children for use as soldiers and sex slaves. In the two-decade rebellion in northern Uganda, the LRA rebels hacked villagers with machetes and burnt people to death in their huts at the instigation of Kony, who claims he is a prophet.

Invisible Children

The LRA and Kony were thrust into the public eye last week after a 30-minute video by San Diego-based Invisible Children went viral on the Internet through campaigns on social-media networks like Facebook and Twitter. The Kony2012 video, in which filmmaker Jason Russell attempts to explain Kony’s actions to his four-year-old son, was viewed 76 million times on YouTube since it was posted on March 5.

Invisible Children, which was created after the filmmakers visited Uganda in 2003, calls on supporters to lobby U.S. lawmakers and buy posters and bracelets to publicize Kony’s name so he can be captured by the end of the year. In October, the U.S. sent 100 combat-equipped forces, including special operations personnel, to Central Africa to assist Uganda’s army in capturing Kony.

Wizard of the Nile

The LRA rebellion began after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 by overthrowing Tito Okello, an ethnic Acholi. The LRA blames Museveni’s forces for purging the army of Acholi people, the majority of whom make up the LRA.

According to abductees, Kony is inspired by the Ten Commandments and exhorts child soldiers to kill and maim in the name of the Bible, Matthew Green said in his 2008 book, The Wizard of the Nile, which chronicles the hunt for Kony. The rebel leader made abductees undergo “purification” rituals by his priests that would protect them against bullets from Museveni’s forces, according to Green.

Uganda’s government forced the rebels to flee into neighboring countries in 2006, ending the insurgency in the north. Museveni, who won re-election last year, has since focused on rebuilding the economy of Africa’s largest coffee exporter. Uganda is set to become Africa’s newest oil producer this year when Tullow Oil Plc begins pumping crude and gas from Lake Albert Basin.

Museveni sent forces into Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo to help combat an estimated 300 LRA fighters. In December, Ugandan forces left Congo, where a small group of about 30 rebels remain, according to that country’s army.

Threat to Civilians

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