The search for the Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony continues as U.S. President Obama allocates more military assets to Uganda. While Kony has avoided capture for years now, the United States has begun to step up its role in the larger international effort to catch him.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon sent a military contingent to Uganda, which, according to The New York Times, included “several CV-22 Osprey aircraft, along with 150 Air Force Special Operations forces and other airmen.”
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlyn Hayden informed The Associated Press “that the aircraft would be based in Uganda but will be used in LRA- affected areas of the Central African Republic, Congo and South Sudan to support the African Union’s regional task force.”
Sanctioned by President Obama, U.S. personnel are authorized to “provide information, advice and assistance” to an African Union force trailing both the unlawful leader and his band of loyal followers.
The United Nations, along with multiple human rights groups, has accused the LRA of both murder and kidnapping. The LRA specializes in the recruitment of child soldiers, oftentimes abducting children from the many villages scattered throughout Central Africa. Thousands have been enslaved and forced into combat, making the hunt for Kony one of the most important manhunts today.
Kony’s LRA militiamen are notorious for their use of extreme violence. Reuters reporters Peter Cooney and David Alexander wrote in a recent article that LRA soldiers frequently resort to “chopping off limbs as a form of punishment, as well as raping young girls and abducting them for use as sex slaves.”
“Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Cooney and Alexander wrote.
