CAR joins, Congo extends

Photo left: Uganda army special forces alight from an assault helicopter during an operation against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) camp in Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2008 ( Reuters) Photo right: destroyed village in DRC, photo by Doctors Without Borders.

According to a story by Radio France International, the Central African Republic will participate in joint military operations with the Ugandan army against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.

Led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, the LRA has been on a killing spree in northeastern DR Congo since it was attacked on Dec. 14 by Ugandan forces. As it has in the past, the LRA is expected to cross into the CAR which has an undefended and porous border with the DRC.

The development comes as the DRC has agreed to let Ugandan troops remain in its country to hunt rebels for 21 more days, according to RFI.

Ugandan officials say the mandate for joint operations could be extended once more.

"Kony, if he was clever enough, he would either surrender, go to the designated area of Ri-Kwangba and sign the peace agreement," Captain Deo Akiiki, Ugandan army spokesman told RFI.

"If he continues fighting I don't believe he will succeed anyway. This is a different situation, a different territory and the successes against the LRA are evident," he added.

Akiiki told RFI that the LRA has no food because Ugandan troops destroyed its camps.

"I don't see where Kony's hiding. I am sure he will not get any other safe haven, not in the DRC, Southern Sudan or the Central African Republic," Akiiki said.

"We will not be diverted by LRA's tricks of breaking into two parts but we know where the main part of LRA is and we will go for them," Akiiki told RFI.

"Because of the pressure we are putting on them because of the many fighting squads we are having in their jungles" the attacks on civilians have stopped, he said.

But people in the region continue to flee for their lives, he said.

"Frightened people continue to move out of their villages, but at the moment at least we have all fighting mechanisms put in place to ensure that these destructions are not done," said Akiiki.

Kony could strike back

The new investigative reporting publication, The Independent, in Kampala, Uganda, (http://www.independent.co.ug/) is reporting on growing dissent among the current and former military leaders in Uganda over the on-going operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The generals suggest that the strike against Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army, was designed as a short-term move. But since it has failed to turn up much, except for things like Kony's guitar, pictured here, the strike is looking more like it will be a long and bloody affair.

As Independent's managing editor Andrew Mwenda notes, it would seem like the operation could and should be a success. After all, the Ugandan army is backed by the UN peacekeeping force to the south. To the north it has the South Sudan army, and on their side is the Congolese army.

Kony is supposedly boxed in.

But according to one unnamed general, a long-term war in that remote location could be disastrous for the Ugandan army. A sustained campaign could work to Kony's advantage.

First of all, the general points out, the Congolese and South Sudanese contributions to the effort are limited. It's unlikely they will have the stomach for an drawn-out war.

Secondly, the LRA is accustomed to working in small, highly mobile, and independent units. They survive by attacking and looting villages and are not interested in taking and holding territory.

But most importantly, to sustain such a war, Uganda will need to establish base camps and supply lines treacherous and remote areas.

“This will leave our army badly exposed,” the general told the Independent, “because LRA will now be able to attack UPDF supply lines to loot food (and therefore feed off our backs) and to make it difficult and expensive for us to sustain our troops" in Garamba National Park where Kony is still thought to be.

"It would be almost impossible (and if possible extremely expensive in money and soldiers) to secure the vast distance ..., " the general said. "There are no roads, there are few human settlements and most of the place is either forest or bush. No commander would love to be in such a situation.”

Not only is the future bleak for the innocent civilians in the area who have suffered, but also for the Uganda military.

Obama's east African roots

We all know about President Barack Obama's father being Kenyan, but now claims are being made that Obama's grandfather was a Ugandan.

In an article published in the Kampala newspaper, the Daily Monitor, and written by Angelo Izama, a group claims that Obama's Luo tribal connections extend to regions of Kenya that were once part of Uganda in the 1920s when it was a British protectorate.

According to the Monitor, the information came in a statement signed by Nelson Umah Tete about a book titled “The Luo” by George William Alenyo.

The organisation, Luo Community [Ugandan Chapter], is however an unregistered entity whose real membership remains unknown, the Monitor said.

“By 1926 when Obama’s grandfather Onyango Obama was born in Nyanza province [it] was still part of the Uganda protectorate whose boundary extended up to the Rift Valley in Nakuru” the statement said, adding that the boundaries were not altered until 1926.

As we all know, Obama’s African roots have been a source of excitement in the region, and a beer has been named after him in Kenya. Children born on the day he won the presidency have been named after him.

DVD’s with his speeches are selling like blockbusters and his acceptance speech has been turned into a cellular phone ringtone, the Monitor reports.

While ‘Obamania’ has shown no signs of ebbing, it holds a special significance to ethnic Luo group.

It must be noted that the Luo tribe in western Kenya is closely related to the Acholi tribe in northern Uganda, of which Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army is a member.

The Acholi as well as the Luo, as they're known, both speak the Luo language, which in northern Uganda is also simply called Acholi.

New focus on Africa needed

The suspense and anticipation is palatable as the U.S. swears- in Barack Obama as its first African-American president.

It is a milestone, of course, and a colossal turn-around in American governance and policy.

While Obama surely will bring about change on many fronts, one of the places it is sorely needed is Africa.

But leveraging change in Africa won't come immediately, as Obama's priority must be the crumbling U.S. economy. As the world's economic engine, the U.S. economy drives the fortunes of the world.

Some levers for shifting gears are already in place in Africa. Specifically, the U.S. military's new African Command, Africom.

While it does not necessarily mean more troop involvement, it well could. In announcing the new command, generals said that U.S. forces in Africa would support humanitarian aid efforts there.

This has led to complaints about the militarization of foreign aid, which is a legitimate concern. However, given the state of most Africa countries, the carrot-and-stick approach could prove effective.

Having lived in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Afghanistan and Africa, I know well the failure of foreign aid. Providing aid without demanding results and accountability is not only wrong, it perpetuates the conditions that created the need.

The best example we have is with Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army, now rampaging through northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo where it has killed more than 600 innocent people, abducted hundreds of others, and raped and mutilated scores more.

This is the same army that was pampered and fed by a collection of European countries for more than two years as an inducement to negotiate. But after two years, Kony and his LRA made fools of the international community by not signing a peace deal on three separate occasions.

And now Kony's on what is the most bloody rampage in his army's horrific 22-year existence.

Chances are slight that the U.S. will get involved in the hunt for Kony that continues by the Ugandan Army.

What we can expect quickly, however, is some action in Darfur. During his campaign, Obama called for direct action in Darfur, and this has been reiterated by his designated Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

First is the likely imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur, which will be enforced by U.S. air power already based in the region. This would effectively ground Sudan's fleet of Antonov bombers and attack helicopters, and would go a long way toward stopping the destruction of Darfur's villages.

Other actions have been suggested, as were leaked in a recent White House memo, such as jamming Sudan's communications system and blockading Sudan's ports -- a move that would halt the flow of Sudan oil which President Omar al-Bashir uses to fund his war in Darfur.

While the world's attention to Africa will soon shift to Darfur, it would be nice if some of that attention would spill over to the bloody corner of the DRC where Kony and his LRA continues kill innocent people with impunity.

Death toll climbs

According to a story in the New Vision newspaper in Kampala, Uganda, hundreds of civilians were burned to death on Saturday by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.

The rebels set ablaze a church called Bima in the Democratic Republic of Congo at midnight as the faithful prayed, according to the New Vision.

It is not yet known how many were in the church at the time, according to Radio Okapi, the UN's radio network in Congo. The rebels reportedly attacked others with axes and knives, slitting throats and crushing skulls.

The massacre occurred in the towns of Tora and Libombi, and two nearby mining communities located 130km from Dungu, the base of operations for the Ugandan military which is chasing the LRA.

According to the president of the civil society of Dungu, Felicien Balani: “The LRA entered around midnight. They surprised the faithful of the church who were in a prayer vigil. They burned them in the church,” said Balani.

The rebels also burnt several houses at the gold mine town of Tora. So far recorded are five deaths and six injured.

Civil society organisations working in Dungu said over 100 people had fled the area by yesterday.

“In Doruma, it was really awful. They had killed at least 300 people. We were in a village where there are only six survivors, all the others were killed,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, of Human Rights Watch.

“One of the few survivors, a 72-year-old man who arrived late for Christmas lunch, hid in the bushes and watched in horror as his wife, children and grandchildren were killed,” Woudenberg told New Vision.

After the massacre, the rebels “ate the Christmas feast the villagers had prepared, and then slept among the dead bodies before continuing on their trail of destruction and death” through another 12 villages.

Another 86 people were massacred in the most recent incidents.

More time, more trouble

Ugandan officials are going to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital of Kinshasa this week to ask for more time to hunt rebels.

Uganda had approval from the DRC to chase the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army for a month that ended Jan. 14, 30 days after the military first attacked the LRA camps in the Garamba National Park on Dec. 14.

Even though the deadline passed, Uganda made no moves to withdraw its troops.

Neither has it produced evidence that a month of fighting has done anything to slow, stop, kill or capture the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony.

Instead, the death toll among the civilian population of northeastern DRC continues to mount, with the UN saying more than 600 have been killed, about 400 more abducted and more than 100,000 people displaced.

It is also somewhat gratifying to see that the Enough project, has finally joined me and a growing chorus who have condemned the Ugandan operation as a dismal failure, despite the government's claims to the contrary.

Uganda's request for an extension signals what I predicted shortly after the attack began. Uganda will only create the same disastrous situation that it did in northern Uganda when it conducted a "war" against Kony and the LRA.

As has been widely reported in the Ugandan news media and as I amply demonstrate in my new book on the LRA (First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army), the war in the north was poorly fought and undermanned.

This was due to the massive fraud perpetrated by the Ugandan army's high command which listed thousands of "ghost soldiers" on it's pay rolls as fighting in the north, when they didn't exist. The generals and commanders pocketed the money.

Meanwhile, the Acholi and Langi people of northern Uganda were herded into 200 refugee camps and bore the brunt of the LRA's endless attacks on these poorly guarded camps, which became the LRA's favorite soft targets.

Since the Ugandan army was unable to capture Kony or defeat the LRA after more than 20 years of war, why does it think it can do so in the DRC which is more difficult terraine and more remote?

It can't. Ultimately the Ugandan army will be forced to set up its own military camps and from them wage war against the LRA.

As a sign of things to come, Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda told the French Press Agency, that, "It's going to take a little more thinking to figure out how civilians are going to be protected."

Fortunately, most of the regional population already has fled. Those who remain will be herded into defensible civilian camps, much like those in northern Uganda. Viola! We're right back to where we were in Uganda: an endless war with endless bloodshed.

Meanwhile, the situation swirling around this botched campaign is taking on ever more bizarre dimensions.

The LRA's self-proclaimed spokesman, David Nyekorach-Matsanga, told AFP that a ceasefire agreement was imminent.

This is as credible as Matsanga's previous claims.

"There is a ceasefire coming soon because the Ugandan army knows it has not achieved its objective. The LRA will never be defeated through fighting, only through dialogue," he told AFP.

Matsanga, who says he is in regular contact with the elusive Kony, said talks are ongoing between Kampala and former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, who serves as the UN special envoy to LRA-affected areas.

Ugandan officials don't beleive Matsanga because there is need. What is the point of a ceasefire? A peace agreement has already been negotited and now only needs to be signed, something Kony has refused to do three times.

A ceasefire will only give the LRA time to regroup. Uganda knows that.

"There will only be a ceasefire if Joseph Kony himself gives categorical assurances that he will sign the Final Peace Agreement," Uganda's deputy foreign minister, Okello Oryem, told AFP.

"The communication must come directly from Kony," Okello told AFP.

Ankunda, meanwhile, was quick to reject the claim that Matsanga and Kony recently spoke. "David Matsanga is not in touch with Kony. That is a fact," he said.

That certainly hasn't stopped Matsanga from getting all the press he wants.

Condemnation, but no action

The United Nations Security Council has once again condemned the atrocities that are currently being committed by the Lord's Resistance Army.

On Friday, the UNSC issued a press statement, read aloud by the Council President Jean-Maurice Ripert of France, which chairs the council this month.

Here it is:

"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the recent attacks carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which have resulted in over 500 dead and over 400 abducted, as well as the displacement of over 104,000 people. The members of the Council expressed their grave concern at the scale of these atrocities and emphasized that those responsible must be brought to justice.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated the statement of the President of the Security Council 22 December 2008. The members of the Council expressed their deep concern that the Council’s previous calls for the LRA to cease its attacks, and recruitment and use of children, and to release all women, children and non-combatants, have not been heeded.

"The members of the Security Council demanded that the members of the LRA cease all attacks on civilians immediately, and urged them to surrender, assemble, and disarm, as required by the Final Peace Agreement."

Does the world need yet another strongly worded statement? It seems that the LRA, and its leader Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium, has committed enough atrocities in the past twenty-two years to warrant more than grumbling from the UN's guiding council.

The French like to present themselves as the bastion of "liberty, fraternity, and equality," but they're disinclined to do much to enforce those values.

It's not as though France couldn't.

As I stated last week during a interview on BBC radio's The World Today show, putting an end to Kony and the LRA's endless rampages will take more than letting the Ugandan army wander around the jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It will take a well-trained and well-equipped force authorized by the UN and composed of international troops with the specific goal of capturing or killing Kony.

This is not without precedent. It's been done before in other African countries, including eastern DRC when the inept horde of UN peacekeepers there, which number an astounding 17,000 soldiers, were unable to keep the peace. The UN authorized a limited European Union force to enter the country, settle the situation, then pull out. It worked.

Such a force is sitting very close by. It's called European Force, or Eufor, and is about 5,000 EU troops, mostly French, who are in eastern Chad on the border with Sudan.

They're positioned as a deterrent to any further invasions by the Sudan-backed rebels who attacked the Chad capital of Ndjamena last February. And, some speculate that the force may be there to help protect Chad's oil fields, which are pumping out crude that is piped to the west coast of Africa via Cameroon.

But, there's not much for them do these days. Why can't the UN send them in for one-month mission? It's clear the Ugandan army needs help, as does South Sudan and the Central African Republic, where most say the LRA is headed.

The Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA), which is South Sudan's army, has found dozens of body of people believed to be killed by the Ugandan Lord Resistance Army (LRA) after being abducted.

And, the BBC reports that rebels attacked a village in the DRC this week, killing four people, including a girl of four and abducting a boy of nine. A bishop in South Sudan says two men had their hands and legs chopped off and were beaten to death, as boys watched.

The BBC noted that the LRA now operates in at least four countries in the region, and that the CAR has sent troops to its border with DR Congo in an effort to push back the rebels.

The survivors of the LRA attacks told a UN agency that the rebels looted and torched their houses, forcing them to flee into the forest.

"What we saw was shocking," David Nthengwe, UNHCR spokesman for eastern DR Congo, told the BBC. "People live in fear in the forest. Many of them are unable to move, as they fear that the LRA is going to attack them."

Clearly the Ugandan army is not making much progress. Yet, the Eufor sits there in Chadian desert, just an hour away by air.