Highlight
The south Sudan government has said that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) terror group continues to wage attacks on civilians in the country, contradicting the recent report that the terror group’s activities are negligible in the country.
Summary
A newly published report by the Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative on 8th October 2015 has recorded significant reduction in attacks in South Sudan by the Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony.
Previous claims by the South Sudanese government are however blaming the Ugandan rebels for many of the recent attacks in the states of Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal.
The report indicates presence of many different groups of armed attackers in South Sudan in addition to the LRA, including poachers, armed bandits, rebel groups, and rogue military forces. In some attacks, the perpetrators remain unidentified.
The report tracked that LRA groups only frequently targeted South Sudan’s Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el-Ghazal states way back from 2007–2011, but have only attacked civilians there on five occasions since 2012.
However, OSINt summaries before and after signing of the South Sudan have indicated a spate of attacks in South Sudan, indicating failure by the opposing parties to abide by the contents of the peace deal.
The situation in South Sudan is worrying especially with presence of many armed militia and bandits, rendering it impossible to point an accusing finger to any particular group.
The US is however narrowing down on LRA commander Joseph Kony, whose elimination from the terror picture will be a relief to countries in East and central Africa where LRA has carried out major atrocities including murders, rape and recruitment.
