Joint Task Force Raids LRA Camps in the Central African Republic

On August 20th a raid against an infamous militia that has been terrorizing Central Africa for decades took place. The few available details on the raid, and on the story itself, have largely been ignored by most major media outlets.

On that date a joint force composed of commandos from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), South Sudan People’s Defense Forces and the Army of the Central African Republic attacked three camps of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Central African Republic.

The LRA is a Ugandan militia founded in 1987 by Joseph Kony and operates in the border region where the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) meet. The group began as a traditional tribal effort to protect the Acholi People of Northern Uganda from the perceived excesses of the Museveni government. After the tribe rejected the overtures of Kony, his reign of terror commenced.

The figures from the northern part of Uganda are staggering. It has been documented that over one million people in Northern Uganda have been displaced while an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 boys and girls were kidnapped by the group

The group would not remain in Uganda; in fact it would become embroiled in two of the most brutal conflicts in Africa. Another conflict where the reputation of the group would become more controversial would be in Sudan. The ties between the LRA and the former Sudanese leader Omar Bashir were first documented during the civil war in the 1980s and 1990s when the group was used as a proxy by Khartoum to fight against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The LRA would return to Darfur in 2010, in an attempt to seek sanctuary that was offered by President Bashir after the Ugandan military ratcheted up pressure on the group.

The LRA was hiding in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after Ugandan authorities issued a warrant for their leader’s arrest. It was one of the various groups that was active in conflict that erupted after the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. They was the focus of Operation Lightning Thunder which was launched in December 2018 by a joint force of Ugandan, South Sudanese and DRC troops. Before the group was driven out of the Congo, it would be held responsible for several horrific attacks including one specific attack in 2009 where over 321 civilians were murdered.  

A series of indictments by the International Criminal Court against Joseph Kony and his key lieutenants came down in 2005, which had the desired effect of increasing pressure on Kony and his leaders to turn themselves in and face justice for their actions across the region. However, a new actor would soon emerge in this drama.

After a successful grassroots lobbying campaign, the US Congress would pass legislation asking the Obama administration to do what they could to assist these African nations in their efforts to bring Kony to justice. So, in 2011 President Obama would authorize the sending of 100 military advisors (in other words, Special Forces) to the region. Although the US troops remained in the region until 2017 the elusive leader of the LRA would not be captured.

So why has there been little press coverage of this group over the years?

For one, they have been overshadowed. The LRA is not considered to be the boogeyman in the region--they have been supplanted in that role by two other militant groups, M23 and the Allied Democratic Forces. The efforts to rein in these groups have yet to see success.

Another reason is that the group has lost its patron. With former President Bashir ousted from power and jailed, having at one point been the key ally that the group could rely upon, was removed from the scene. Sudan has been ravaged by a civil war at this point and it appears that their services are not needed by former proxies that could use them, and having been almost entirely replaced by Sudan’s own Rapid Support Forces (RSF), formerly a murderous group of militias known as the Janjaweed.

It is also interesting to note that even though the LRA are currently in the Central African Republic, they have not had any contact with Russia-based “private” military contractor, Wagner Group, at this time, who has been operating extensively throughout the region and whose presence extends throughout Africa to include the Sahel countries and formerly Mozambique. Information regarding clashes in the CAR takes a while to reach the rest of the world; it should be noted that in UN reports on CAR the LRA is rarely mentioned.

We can reasonably assume that the recent raid had the goal of being the final nail in the coffin for the LRA. There are few available details about the results of the raid, but the targeted camps were apparently overrun and dismantled, and equipment was captured, reportedly dealing a significant blow to the LRA’s capabilities. Whether or not this is true is too early to determine.