Christine Kutiote, whose niece was abducted by the LRA in March, with her remaining children at her home in the north east of the DRC (Kate Holt/eyevine)From Times Online:
Once seen as a ragtag brigade, the guerrilla force that claims divine leadership is organised and ready to renew fighting
For eight days Raymond Kpiolebeyo was marched at gunpoint through the Congolese jungle, not knowing whether he would live or die. At night he slept with eight other prisoners, pinned under a plastic sheet weighted down with bags and stones to prevent escape. Their sweat condensed on the sheeting, inches above their faces, before dripping back and turning their plastic prison into a stinking, choking sauna.
He was a prisoner of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a band of pitiless commanders and their brutalised child soldiers. “They told us that if one of us tried to escape we would all be shot,” said Raymond, 28, a teacher from Doruma, close to the border with southern Sudan. He had been captured by a raiding party looking for porters, sex slaves and soldiers to continue the LRA's 20-year struggle to overthrow the Ugandan Government.
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My Comment: Action against this wretched rebel movement has been long overdue. Unfortunately, defeating them will not be easy. They have weapons and their commanders are mostly loyal to continue the fight. This part of Uganda has the ingredients to be a mini-Congo type of perpetual conflict.