The Lord's Resistance Army (Essay Sample)

The Lord’s Resistance Army
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The Lord’s Resistance Army
The Lord’s Resistance Army is a small armed group in Central Africa that began 34 years ago in northern Uganda to oppose the Yoweri Kaguta Museveni regime that came to power in 1986. Its founding leader, John Kony, is still on the run and has escaped capture from multiple operations led by the Ugandan army and multiple partners. The group inflicts widespread human suffering to northern Uganda, the Central Africa Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan. Although it has few members, its actions are brutal, including mass murders, mass abductions, sexual assault, and looting. The human suffering it causes has led to the jailing of one of its commanders Dominic Ongwen to twenty-five years by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He faced almost seventy counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda. Any group interested in eliminating the LRA must address all the components of the conflict, such as security, humanitarian aid, and how to deal with the surrender of former combatants.
Background
The LRA emerged in Northern in Uganda in 1987, one year after Yoweri Museveni gained power in Uganda. Museveni’s rise ended a decade-long rule of northerners in the country. The group was the second revolt against the Museveni regime after the collapse of Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) that fought for one year before it collapsed. In the same year, Joseph Kony, a relative of Lakwena, emerged to claim her legacy (Veale & Stavrou 2003). Using the biblical philosophy of the Lakwena movement, the group began by claiming that it would return Uganda to a form of governance that uses the Ten Commandments. However, within a short period, it began to hurt citizens, a culture that is sustained to date (Titeca 2013). Eventually, Uganda armed forces prevented the group from operating in northern Uganda, forcing it to operate in South Sudan and DRC.
Guiding Philosophy
The group's activities began as an attempt by Kony to set up a state in Northern Uganda that adheres to his interpretation of the Biblical Ten Commandments. Apart from that, there is no other known philosophy about the group. After gaining root in northern Uganda, it began to kill and destroy properties. More than sixty thousand children were abducted (Pham et al., 2008). Although the aim was to establish the state in northern Uganda, constant fighting with Uganda’s military forced it to spread its bases to South Sudan, DRC, and the Central African Republican to escape from the Ugandan army. The group targeted children in refugee camps and people in isolated villages. It was common for the group to force people into their homes and burn them alive. In other cases, they forced women to carry their loot to their hideouts and forcefully marry them. The group is also accused of abducting underage girls and raping them. Thus, the brutality of the group has come to define it more than any other philosophy.
Although the LRA makes periodic political demands, it has no apparent economic or political agenda. However, its longevity in northern Uganda is the product of long-standing northern grievances against southern domination in politics and economic neglect. The endurance of the group is also a product of proxy struggles between Sudan and Uganda. Their current operations are not guided by any ideology apart from inflicting pain to the citizens and protecting senior leaders from capture. It operates like a cult, with Kony arguing that he receives commands from traditional spirits and sometimes uses Christian teachings and messianic messages. The commanders of the group are notorious for brutalizing and mutilating their victims. They replenish their ranks by abducting and brutalizing children and forcing them to commit atrocities against their communities.
Regional Problem
The LRA began as an Uganda problem but is now a regional challenge for five African nations. The LRA is now a threat to CAR, the democratic republic of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan. However, the problem is overshadowed by the conflicts in these countries that are troubling the region. International partners are also concerned and helping in hunting the LRA, United Nations peace-keepers, and the Congolese Army operate in areas inhabited by the group to protect the populations. American lobby groups, such as Invisible Children, are working in the communities to publicize the challenges that children face after encountering brutality in their lives (Titeca & Costeur 2015). Thus, although the LRA began as a problem to the Ugandan government, it has changed to be a regional and international challenge attracting the attention of major players in security.
Despite its Ugandan origins, the LRA operates in DRC, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The group's activities in numerous countries have attracted the United States in operations to capture its commanders. It works with the help of Uganda military officials. The United States and its partners provide humanitarian aid to the victims, pursue regional diplomacy. The approach brings together international, national, and subnational institutions to protect civilians (Branch 2012). The approach departs from traditional approaches that use military operations to subdue the militant groups.
End of the Movement
Memberships to the LRA have declined in recent years due to constant bombardment by the Uganda army and changing geopolitical realities in the region. In the late 1990s, they had thousands of fighters camping in northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. By the early 2000s, their numbers began to decrease due to a regional government's lack of resources and support. Now the group has hundreds of core combatants that travel on foot and are equipped with small arms. Former abductors act as porters, scouts, sexual slaves, and potential junior fighters (Allen & Vlassenroot 2010). Ugandan Acholis occupy the central leadership positions, but lower ranks now reflect the ethnic diversity of the regions of operation in DRC, South Sudan, and CAR. However, nothing binds the splitting groups together. Therefore, the group is on a deathbed, although it poses a significant security challenge to the region.
Despite the dissipation in membership, the LRA continues to cause havoc against civilian communities. Arieff et al. (2015) estimate that the LRA has killed over two thousand people and abducted more than three thousand people in DRC, South Sudan, and CAR from 2008 to 2011. They further estimate that the group has displaced more than four hundred and fifty thousand from their homes in the three countries during the same period. Although it is causing a lot of havoc, the conflict escapes military or negotiated solutions. However, it continues to cause widespread insecurity and worsening humanitarian conditions.
LRA Impact in Northern Uganda
Calm returned to northern Uganda in 2006 when the Uganda army declared that it had defeated the LRA. However, the economy of the area is still depressed due to the lasting impact of the conflict. More than twenty thousand children were abducted and used as children soldiers, sexual slaves, and servants during the conflict. At the same time, more than two million people were displaced from their homes. The majority of the people lived in refugee camps and internally displaced person’s camps (Veale & Stavrou 2003). The government solution was to relocate families to safe homes to provide them with security and reduce the chances of abduction by LRA. Although fighting stopped in the region in 2006, tensions between the southern and northern parts of the country persisted despite the government making many efforts to develop the region.
Sudan and the LRA
In the 1990s, the Sudanese government was accused of collaborating with the LRA. It was accused of sheltering and giving the movement supplies in retaliation for Uganda’s support for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that was fighting for the independence of southern Sudan. With the protection of the Sudanese government in Khartoum, the LRA used their base in southern Sudan to launch attacks into northern Uganda against the Uganda army and attacking civilians. From 2000 henceforth, the Sudanese government in Khartoum allowed Uganda to target the LRA bases in the south of the country (Veale & Stavrou 2003). The Ugandan-led operations continued up to 2006, when the strength of the LRA declined significantly. The signing of the Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 by Sudan changed the dynamics of the rebel group. It moved its operations from southern Sudan to northern DRC.
Efforts to eliminate the LRA
The primary approach by the Ugandan government to fight the insurgency was to use counterinsurgency operations. Additionally, the International Criminal Court unsealed warrants for the arrest of the leaders of the movement. The Uganda army has led operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo to capture Kony and other rebels' commanders to no avail. United Nations missions in DRC and South Sudan continue to support efforts to eliminate LRA and maintain peace in northern Uganda (Veale & Stavrou 2003). The country is also receiving support from international partners to provide humanitarian aid to the people to help them recover from the loss.
Peace Agreements
There have also been attempts to broker peace between the LRA and the government of Uganda to no avail. A process dubbed the Juba peace process tried to bring the LRA and the Uganda government to a negotiating table. After numerous attempts, the pea...