Uganda's LRA Threatens South Sudan Election

Something must be done to stop Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The rebel group, run like a super-cult, could not win in Uganda and has since burned trails through Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and -- many political leaders assert -- Darfur.

Now, James Gatdet Dak of the Sudan Tribune reports on the South Sudanese army leadership sounding the alarm for fear that the LRA will run raids to disturb the upcoming Sudanese national elections. Here's a photo essay from Brendan Bannon on Congolese refugees forced out of their villages, some kidnapped, raped, then expelled, as they arrive to relative safety in South Sudan.

What are world leaders doing about the LRA? This tiny little cult blamed for so much havoc is really seen in two lights. First, the moderate global leadership considers it a rebel group to condemn, but no one fighting it except for in Uganda. There are numerous stories alleging that the Ugandan clandestine services, and in some cases its formal military services, are chasing the group all over Africa, to no success.

Perhaps world leaders hope that Uganda can figure something out so they do not have to. The UN is baffled about what to do, and aid agencies continue to ring the same alarm bells for the protection of civilians from the crossfire and from direct attacks month after month.

Another view of the group is more sinister and confronts yet another challenge for peacebuilding in Africa. Many of those who study central Africa more closely see the LRA as a hybrid force in which hundreds of thousands of people who have legitimate concerns against the Ugandan government are, by default, supporting the only political group willing to fight for them.

And that political leadership, the only one they can find able to lead, just happens to be a handful of lunatics running the force like a cult. Sound familiar? Not ironically, many political leaders, not just investigative journalists, also allege that one of the LRA's longtime funders is none other than the administration of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Allegedly, the Bashir administration believes it is so important to keep its opponents weak that it does not mind funding this cult rebel force to run interference all over the place. The alleged deal? If the LRA runs interference in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, then Khartoum will give them what they need to fight Uganda. That's the allegation. Not assuming it's one hundred percent true, but, really, why else would the LRA voluntarily leave its primary cause in order to fight Darfur rebels? In Congo, CAR, or South Sudan, they might simply be pillaging, but why go all the way to poor Darfur? And why plan to disrupt South Sudanese elections?

What is the international community to do to end LRA aggression throughout central Africa while at the same time not canceling out any political moves to ensure Uganda does more with fairness to include people in Northern Uganda in their political process?

The broad view followed now is simply to condemn the group, consent to Uganda chasing them all over the place, and sprinkle aid around as an apology to those caught in their web. But momentum is coming -- and would be even more emboldened if solid evidence were published -- to cut alleged funding from the Bashir Administration. More importantly, a cross-border security effort is vital. This situation has run on far too long, hurt far too many people, and ravaged through far too many countries than to keep calling it that little insurgency in northern Uganda.

Photo credit: K Burns (A displaced family settlement in Kitgum, Uganda, a result of the civil war)