While people all round the world were celebrating Christmas Day and the message of “Peace on Earth” brought by the birth of Jesus, Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and his depraved band of slaughtermen were busy massacring 35 civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan. The attacks occurred in apparent retaliation to Operation Lightning Thunder, a failed co-operative operation between Uganda, southern Sudan and Congo, which attempted to wipe out Kony’s forces. Kony’s butchers killed another 45 women, children and elderly people inside a church on the following day.
It seems remarkable that Kony and his small band of somewhere between 500 and 3000 soldiers has been able to terrorise an entire region of Africa with impunity for more than 20 years. He must have been tipped off before Operation Lightning Thunder because it appears that not a single member of his rebel army was harmed – or even sighted – in the attack. The only casualty reported is a Ugandan fighter pilot who accidentally crashed his plane.
In one of Kony’s bases which was seized during Operation Lightning Thunder, a large cache of drugs and food was discovered. These had apparently been supplied by the Catholic relief agency Caritas. This highlights the ambiguous role of aid agencies in conflict situations. In many cases the aid which is intended by the donors to go to victims ends up either through the carelessness or deliberate acts of the aid agencies going to the perpetrators and helping them carry on the conflict.