He has also used terror to maintain control, beating and killing followers who were caught trying to flee. Some former fighters have said they complied with the leader's orders out of fear. Ex-commander Kenneth Banya told the BBC in that he had sex with a minor because he was threatened with death if he left her alone. Mr Kony has described himself as a "freedom fighter" but has been accused of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the north of Uganda.
He has used biblical references to explain why it was necessary to kill his own people, since they had, in his view, failed to support his cause. In his first interview in , filmed at his jungle base at the time in DR Congo , he insisted he was not the monster he was portrayed to be.
I cannot cut the ear of my brother; I cannot kill the eye of my brother. Mr Kony's fighters continued to spread terror targeting and killing local people for provisions. They later moved to CAR where they acted more like a criminal outfit engaging in poaching and illegal mining.
There have been attempts to make peace, but talks fell apart in because the LRA leader wanted assurances that he and his allies would not be prosecuted. But some LRA fighters are being prosecuted. Other key figures have either been killed, captured, or have given themselves up. Mr Kony's global notoriety increased in because of the social media campaign that used the hashtag Kony A video posted online by the US advocacy group Invisible Children was watched tens of millions of times.
It inspired a public outcry, which included celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, to boost the hunt for Mr Kony. About US troops had already been deployed to central Africa in to support an African Union-led mission against the LRA, but Kony increased the pressure to get results. The film proved controversial, especially in Uganda, where critics said it oversimplified a complex subject, but Invisible Children said it succeeded in extending the US mission.
However, Mr Kony has not been found and in the US and Ugandan armies ended their efforts to track him down. They argued that his ability to cause trouble had been degraded and he was no longer a threat. Has Joseph Kony been defeated? Taking on Uganda's LRA rebels. Africa Today podcasts. But as the curtain was pulled back on an expensive courtroom drama, it was hard not to be disappointed by the villain who entered the courtroom at The Hague.
Dominic Ongwen, a year-old former child soldier himself, wore a suit and tie and looked bemused as the charges were read against him: murder, sexual slavery, rape, torture, and conscripting child soldiers. Formed in northern Uganda in the s as a political rebellion with strains of Christian mysticism, the LRA has abducted 30, child soldiers and killed more than , civilians.
Now, that effort is spent. After the election, the Trump administration signaled its disinterest in the LRA issue, and this week, US Africa Command began pulling out the Special Forces troops and airmen involved in the chase. Ugandan troops are withdrawing too, and most LRA-focused nonprofits have run out of money. The result? The warlord remains at large.
A twisted path of collateral damage and ethical quandaries litter the wayside. Aid for populations devastated by his year rampage dwindles, alleviating their suffering always having proved less thrilling than hunting a madman. The quest climaxes with a trial that even some of his victims greet with a shrug. In August, I set out for central Africa, where the LRA has operated for the past decade across some of the most remote bush in the world.
The city became a humanitarian hotspot, and displaced-person camps proliferated. Gulu was then the entry point for most of the vigilantes and seekers who became obsessed with Joseph Kony—including the International Criminal Court, which made Kony and four of his lieutenants the first indictments it issued as a court in Today the city is safe, with a robust economy fueled by trade with South Sudan.
Storefronts are painted with advertisements for Coca Cola and mobile phone networks. When I visited the gym at an upscale hotel, bankrolled by NGO guests over the years, I found myself running on a treadmill next to a middle-aged man.
The town is a minute ride on a rutted dirt road that cuts through maize fields. On the night of May 20, , Dominic Ongwen allegedly led a brigade of LRA fighters into Lukodi, killing more than 60 people and abducting others. But the death toll was just the beginning. Years of conflict in the rural district meant lost cattle, displacement, and poverty.
But large-scale reparations payments to victims are unlikely—and this myth underpins much of the local interest in the ICC prosecution. He was abducted as a year old, and he was once caned times for disobeying orders. Ongwen surrendered in after falling out with Kony, apparently fearing that he would be murdered. His relief in escaping is clear in a photograph included in some flyers that the US military has airdropped over central Africa to encourage further LRA defections: in the photo, Ongwen is beaming after his arrest.
Some former LRA abductees have argued that Ongwen should be pardoned. Every defector he encounters reports that Kony and his commanders use the threat of ICC prosecution to keep people from leaving, even low-level fighters who would never be prosecuted.
Joseph Kony has been at large since , when a round of peace talks failed and he disappeared back into the bush. Kony is everywhere, but more importantly, he is nowhere. The hunt is a performative space, a void into which his pursuers can insert themselves. Khartoum is not a member of the regional taskforce and, as a historical supporter of the LRA, appears to have given Kony safe haven. Crucially, though, he no longer leads his men. There is a group … who has decided to leave [the] LRA and operates on [its] own.
The LRA has been completely disorganised with no central command. The two men will receive a government amnesty. But Otto, an Acholi from northern Uganda, the original heartland of the LRA, acknowledges that the group remains a threat. It is a revenue stream that could keep them armed for years. As of 30 March this year, they are believed to have kidnapped people in 43 incidents.
It would be unfortunate if the LRA returned because they were allowed to.
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