US military wrapped up an operation against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, a top U.S. General said Friday.
According to the General, LRA has been reduced to ‘irrelevance’ after years of joint military operations that has left most of its rebel forces killed.
LRA leader Joseph Kony who has a bounty on his head still remains at large.
In 2006, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In 2008, the United States government declared Kony a “specially designated global terrorist.”
US in 2010 deployed around 100 Special Forces to work with regional armies to defeat the LRA and try to capture Kony. According reports by U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Kony is believed to be in poor health.
The LRA insurgency has killed more than 100,000 people and kidnapped 60,000 children in a three-decade-long rebellion spanning northern Uganda, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo since it was set up in 1987.
A former child soldier turned LRA general, Dominic Ongwen, is currently on trial at The Hague –ICC after being captured by U.S. forces in 2015.
