A fanatical rebel group formed in northern Uganda in the 1980s has spread to become what one U.S. general labeled a "transnational" threat, prompting the U.S. and various East African nations to work together to defeat the group. The international cooperation is the fruit of years of delicate planning by U.S. officials.
The Lord's Resistance Army, founded by Ugandan Joseph Kuny in 1986, aims to establish a Christian theocratic government in East Africa. But the group's brutal methods -- torture, abduction and rape -- belie its religious roots. From Uganda, the LRA spread into neighboring Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. The LRA is "more of a problem for Sudan than for Uganda now," Don Steinberg, a vice president from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told World Politics Review.
Recently, U.N. aid workers in Central African Republic reported that LRA fighters raided villages for food and supplies, forcing residents to flee. LRA attacks in the four affected countries have displaced hundreds of thousands of people since 1986.