INTRODUCTION

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an armed rebel group led by Joseph Kony, a Ugandan, has been fighting against the Ugandan government since 1987. Initially confined to northern Uganda, the LRA has evolved to become a regional problem operating in the remote border areas between South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR). Throughout its history, the LRA has been responsible for gross human rights abuses, including massacres, torture, sexual violence, abductions, rape and pillage, among others. In 2005, renewed Ugandan military campaigns compelled the LRA to relocate its forces from Uganda and southern Sudan to the remote region of the Garamba National Park in north-eastern Congo and onwards to CAR. In December 2008, Uganda's armed forces, the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF), the DRC's Forces Arm é es de la R é publique D é mocratique du Congo (FARDC) and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) launched a joint military offensive code named’ Operation Lightning Thunder’ on the LRA, with the aim of putting a stop to the LRA conflict and atrocities in their territories. The offensive was carried out with military and logistical support from the United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Reports indicate that the UPDF remains the most effective form of protection, but despite their presence, the LRA continues to commit atrocities against civilians in the region.

On 24 March 2012, the African Union (AU) announced the formation of a new Ugandan-led Regional Task Force (RTF) including troops from the CAR, the DRC and South Sudan to be based in South Sudan and CAR. The RTF comprises soldiers drawn from the four affected countries. Despite this ongoing initiative, the LRA remains scattered across the region and continues to commit human rights atrocities, including murder, maiming, abductions of civilians, including children, to be used as combatants and sexual slaves, and looting property of civilian populations in areas of the CAR, the DRC, South Darfur in the Sudan, and the disputed KafiaKingi enclave (controlled by South Sudan).