It’s important to know that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is still wreaking havoc in central Africa, specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
Ida Sawyer is a researcher for Human Rights Watch who has spent years researching the LRA. She writes:
Available statistics indicate there were fewer attacks in 2011 than the year before, though attacks have continued on a regular basis (the United Nations has reported 20 attacks already this year [2012], in Congo alone). With the group’s leadership still intact and its tactics adapted for the difficult terrain, there are no signs that its capacity to attack civilians and abduct children has significantly weakened. There have been periods when the LRA was comparatively less violent, often while regrouping or resupplying, but these relative lulls were often followed by large-scale killings and abductions.
She adds:
The refrain I hear from victims and survivors again and again is the following: Why have we been forgotten? Our own governments have abandoned us. Why can’t the international community do something to end the terror and bring our children home?
The whole piece is highly recommended.
The LRA operates in remote locations, where reporting is difficult. One massacre went unreported for months.
Dozens of victims and witnesses told us how, in December 2009, the LRA brutally killed at least 345 men, women, and children, and abducted 250 others during a four-day killing rampage. This attack, one of the worst LRA massacres ever documented, had gone unreported for months due to the area’s isolation.
To address the communications problem, Invisible Children helped set up an Early Warning Network, to spread news of attacks to nearby populations. Ida Sawyer states:
I think Invisible Children is starting some of the best work there, in terms of setting up the early warning mechanism. The system relies on a two-way radio network, They're training these two-way radio monitors who can report immediately when there's LRA presence or there's an attack....some of the quickest organizations to respond to the needs on the ground, very flexible and willing to work with and listen to the local communities.
To learn about continuing LRA attacks, follow the LRA Crisis Tracker, operated jointly by Invisible Children and Resolve. You’ll see that attacks are occurring on a weekly basis. For more about the situation, please refer to the excellent overview written by Ida Sawyer for Human Rights Watch, from which I quoted above.
In this video produced by Human Rights Watch in 2010, villagers plead for help. Note: the individuals in this video were asked just one question: “If you could say anything you wanted to the president of the United States, what would you say?”
Dear Obama video
In early 2011, there was a panel at George Washington University featuring Human Rights Watch researchers Ida Sawyer and Anneke Van Woudenberg and reporters Joe Bavier and Marcus Bleasdale. It is an outstanding and informative panel. I strongly recommend watching all of it.
GWU LRA Panel, Part 1
GWU LRA Panel, Part 2
GWU LRA Panel, Part 3
GWU LRA Panel, Part 4
GWU LRA Panel, Part 5
GWU LRA Panel, Part 6
GWU LRA Panel, Part 7
I am not an expert on the LRA, but I thought this information was worth sharing. Let me say that I have serious concerns about the Kony 2012 video. But we should not reduce Invisible Children to the video. I look forward to learning more about this issue and the organizations, Invisible Children and others, seeking to address it.
