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Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Major General Joseph Kony, holds his daughter, Lacot, and son, Opiyo, at peace negotiations between the LRA and Ugandan religious and cultural leaders in Ri-Kwangba, southern Sudan - Source: Reuters -
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Ugandan ground forces closed in on Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
bases in north-eastern Congo after bombarding the rebels' camps,
the army said, in a new push to end one of Africa's longest-running
conflicts.
The offensive agreed by Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and
southern Sudan began on Sunday with an aerial attack against the
camps in the remote Garamba National Park in eastern Congo.
Analysts say regional governments had lost patience with LRA leader
Joseph Kony who has repeatedly failed to sign a final peace deal to
end fighting that has killed thousands of people.
"We can confirm that most of (Kony's) camps have been set on fire,"
said Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda. "It was an air-led
operation, then the ground forces were inserted."
"We had reliable intelligence that they were preparing to attack
Uganda ... and also we had the ICC warrants," he said, referring to
indictments by the International Criminal Court for Kony and two of
his deputies for war crimes.
With details still sketchy, it was not yet clear whether Kony had
been captured, killed or escaped.
Ugandan government ministers were due to hold a news conference
on Tuesday morning about the offensive.
The self-proclaimed mystic Kony has repeatedly demanded the ICC
arrest warrants be dropped before the rebels leave their camps, but
analysts said patience was wearing thin.
"Over the last three years Kony has received a lot of carrots but
no sticks," said Julia Spiegel at Enough Project, a US-based group
campaigning against genocide and war crimes.
"Kony proved repeatedly that he was not ready to sign a peace deal
and given his attempts boost his military strength he left the
governments with little recourse than to use sticks."
Ugandan-led mission
Analysts and diplomats in the region said the offensive involved
helicopter gunships, jets, ground troops and Special Forces -
guided by intelligence from the Congolese army and US electronic
monitoring.
"This was a Ugandan-led mission. The SPLA were on the border and
the Congolese had about 2,000 soldiers deployed to the south but it
was a couple of hundred Ugandan Special Forces who went in," said
an analyst who is following the situation closely.
"They don't yet know if they got him. If it worked, this could be a
good thing," he said.
Kony's fighters have waged a two-decade war against Uganda's
government, mutilating victims, displacing nearly two million and
destabilising a vast swathe of central Africa.
After initial euphoria when a peace process started in mid-2006,
LRA rebels have since run amok in the porous borders of Congo,
Sudan and Central African Republic, opening a new front in a region
racked by insecurity.
Operating from camps in Garamba, the LRA has attacked several
Congolese villages and towns in recent months.
The rebels have killed dozens of civilians and abducted several
hundred, including many children.
Kinshasa, Kampala and Juba agreed earlier this year to launch joint
military operations against the insurgents.
South Sudan's army spokesman, Peter Parnyang, said its soldiers
would not cross into Congo to chase the LRA but would block any
fleeing rebels.
The 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the Congo (MONUC) said
no decision had been taken on what role UN peacekeepers would play
in the new offensive against Kony.
