The efforts of the armies of Uganda, DR Congo and southern Sudan to eliminate the rebel forces of Joseph Kony have now been going for over three weeks, with no indication of success. On 13 December, the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) had positively confirmed the presence of Kony and his deputies Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen at Camp Swahili in the Garamba Forest in DR Congo. When Camp Swahili was bombarded on 14 December, Kony had gone.
Since then, Kony and his men have substantially eluded their pursuers, and different groups of Kony’s fighters have conducted revenge massacres targeting local civilians, with more than 500 people slaughtered in the past 3 weeks. Kony’s rebels, who call themselves the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) avoid direct engagement with armed opponents wherever possible, instead choosing to conduct their “war” by murdering, maiming, raping and kidnapping unarmed civilians.
The pursuing armies are confident that Kony and the LRA are hidden somewhere in a 1200 square kilometre area of dense forest around Garamba. Kony is thought to have separated from his main forces in order to avoid detection. The LRA is thought to be well-armed with sub-machine guns, and in the past they have had no difficulties in obtaining arms from African governments who have been keen to support insecurity in the region.