News
New CRU Policy Brief: The Lord's Resistance Army - tackling a regional spoiler
December 24, 2008. While recently all eyes have been on the growing crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an opportunity to deal with one of the region’s most notorious troublemakers has rather silently lost momentum. On 29-30 November 2008 the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, refused to sign a final peace agreement with the Ugandan government for the third consecutive time.
With initially promising negotiations risking ending in deadlock, the armed forces of Uganda, Southern Sudan and DRC launched a joint military offensive on 14 December 2008.
There is a real danger that this move will spur an escalation of violence and a return to hostilities, rather than contributing to the dismantling of a rebel group that has ravaged northern Uganda for over two decades and increasingly threatens security in the region. If LRA activity intensifies, the international community should immediately support the establishment of a regional containment strategy aimed at minimizing the LRA’s room for manoeuvre and creating new impetus for peace.