No peace for peacekeepers to keep
In recent months, Congo has gained immense media attention for the events unfolding within its borders. The massive rapes, the LRA, Rwandan rebels, and the U.N. Peacekeepers who were brutally butchered, and still the Congolese government is removing the U.N. Peacekeeping mission from Congo. But then again, with no peace to keep, there presence in the country may be without a point, since no progress seems to coming out of the mission.
This timeline by Strategy Page lays out a chronological listing of the events of this past month in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
-Braden
September 2, 2010: UN investigators have accused a group of rebels of gang rape. Members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) committed the crime in late July in a small village in North Kivu province (eastern Congo). At least 200 FDLR rebels participated in a series of night-long assaults on women in the village. The same group is suspected of attacking and plundering other villages in the area. An investigator with a non-governmental organization operating in the province called it a systematic rape of the population. Gang rape is, unfortunately, common in the eastern Congo. Congolese Army forces and some UN peacekeepers serving in eastern Congo have also been accused of rape.
August 21, 2010: The government demanded earlier this year that UN peacekeepers prepare to withdraw the peacekeeping force by sometime next year. In June the UN withdrew about 1,700 troops. Right now about 20,000 peacekeepers serve with UN Organization and Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO). The government, however, wants the UN to keep it supplied with aid money for humanitarian and relief work. This year the UN budgeted over $800 million for relief work in the Congo. A recent UN report, however, said that so far donors have only supplied $400 million. The global recession may be one reason, but aid organizations say the instability in the eastern Congo makes relief operations necessary but also very risky (more…)
TIME: LRA is a guerrilla movement that won’t die
From TIME:
By ALAN BOSWELL / NZARA, SOUTH SUDAN
The night began like any other. Sarah John was busy preparing the evening fire at her village, when suddenly, seven armed men appeared from among the shadows. “They were dirty and smelly, had ragged clothes and hair unlike any normal human being,” she says now, three weeks after the incident. The uninivited visitors began ransacking her place, destroying whatever they could not carry away. When the intruder assigned to guard her stepped away to relieve himself, she escaped.
Her story may sound like the stock opening to a bad western movie — but this version is horribly true, and no cowboy arrives to save the day. The camp for displaced people that the elderly woman now calls home, in Southern Sudan’s Western Equatoria state, is swarming with survivors of recent attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a guerrilla movement that arose in Uganda in the late 1980s under mystic warlord Joseph Kony. Kony’s guerrillas thrive in what this area has best — a rich, magical soil, in which almost anything grows, and grows tall. Wandering amid the dense grass and makeshift huts here are displaced fathers now without sons, daughters with lost grandmothers. Their lives have been turned upside down, and to make matters worse, most cannot even explain why: their attackers speak a foreign tongue, fighting a war outside their control, and they are pursued chiefly by an Ugandan — not a Sudanese — army. The confusion of the South Sudanese is not unique, and it’s certainly not new — the LRA has spent more than two decades baffling a world shocked by its brutality. But since the end of 2008, when the LRA dispersed from its forested Congolese base after a failed U.S.-backed Ugandan military strike, the rebels have begun a new chapter few pretend to fully understand.
On the ground: MEND + ModCloth
I tried to think of a word that could sum up what’s going to happen to MEND in the coming year. Metamorphosis? One thing morphing into something else, something totally different—no, that won’t work. Maturation? Makes me think of Boyz II Men—nope. Transformation? Hints at awesome change, but without the whole shedding-of-old-self quality that ‘metamorphosis’ carries. Hmmm.
Ok, done: In the coming year, MEND will undergo a transformation. Details will follow once we sort out a few things, but know that MEND is growing, transforming. Did anyone catch the ModCloth blog post the other day? ModCloth is now selling MEND bags through their site. We’re psyched. More of these types of partnerships—alternative avenues for merchandising—are what MEND is shooting for in the coming year. And then there’s the Awesome Top Secret MEND Development In Uganda Thing that we’re dying to tell folks about :) Keep your eyes peeled in the coming months for more updates on MEND’s transformation.
–Andrew
CNN: LRA operating like rats in South Sudan
“They behave like rats. A rat comes out of a hole, it comes and picks what it wants, it is difficult for you to trace it back to the hole.” said Lt. Gen. Kuol Deim Kuol, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s spokesman. He was referring to the LRA and how they are operating in Southern Sudan, CAR, and the Congo. These words come as a result of the recent LRA raids throughout villages in Southern Sudan, which has led to the abduction of 700 people in the last 18 months, a third of those being children. -Braden
Nzara, Sudan (CNN) — Albert Abuda might never see his children again.
Long-haired, dirty men emerged from the dense bush around his village one day. They spoke a language he did not understand, fighting in a conflict equally as foreign and incomprehensible.
They were members of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA.
They left with more than the year’s harvest. His son is now likely training as a ruthless guerrilla warrior, and his 13-year-old daughter might be forced into commanders’ harems.
Meanwhile, Abuda wastes away in a makeshift camp with others telling similar tales and living on the generosity of nearby villagers who sometimes provide cassava leaves to boil.
“Since I arrived here, life has become miserable to me. As you can see, my body keeps shrinking because there is no proper food,” he said in the town of Nzara in Southern Sudan, where he and the rest of his community have fled.
The LRA, which follows the self-proclaimed spiritual powers of leader Joseph Kony, arose as a rebel movement in the late 1980s among the Acholi people of marginalized northern Uganda. But Kony and his men are no longer in Uganda, and little remains of any group ideology.
Instead, the LRA are known for their seasoned survival skills and brutal tactics of terror, roaming within a weakly-governed nexus where Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan’s autonomous region of Southern Sudan meet. (more…)
The five most ignored humanitarian crises in the world
Genocide, famine, poverty, and many other terrible words that are used to describe terrible situations, simultaneously are occurring all over the world at this very moment. Some of these tragedies are covered poorly, covered wrongly, or not covered at all by the mainstream media, causing these crises to be ignored by, or invisible to the average person.
UN Dispatch Global News recently came out with a list of the top 5 most ignored humanitarian crises. Among the crises listed is war-torn Uganda and the LRA stronghold that is the Central African Republic. This article is definitely worth the read. -Braden
Want 30% return on your savings? Try VSLA…
Invisible Children’s Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) model is a standard one used in international development. Organizations all over the world use VSLA micro-finance initiatives to help lift people out of poverty. In this article from the Guardian’s Katine series, the author looks at how best to deal with VSLA theft. There were some amazing stats in the article:
Peace and Conflict Update
As LRA activity continues to displace thousands in southern Sudan, the Central African Republic and the DRC, government leaders are renewing their calls for a regional strategy to rid their countries of threat from the LRA. The Central African Republic welcomed the support of the United States and France in their effort to arrest Joseph Kony and end a threat that has affected four countries and hundreds of thousands of people since it began more than two decades ago.
While looting and abductions continue to occur unabated in northern DRC, southern Sudanese officials are reporting that attacks have been occurring on weekly basis, forcing more than 25,000 people from their homes. Sudanese civilians told the BBC that LRA rebels wait to attack until the harvesting of crops is complete, causing a severe drop in the amount of available food. A region that is usually a large provider of food to Sudan will now require World Food Program support to sustain its population.
A few hundred kilometers south of where the LRA is active in DRC, another vicious rebel group, the FDLR, gang-raped 179 women over a two day period last month. The FDLR and other militias in the area are notorious for using rape as a weapon and terrorizing the population through sexual and gender based violence.
Rebels kill three peacekeepers in Congo
Early Wednesday morning, a group of rebels attacked an Eastern Congo U.N. base resulting in the deaths of three Indian Peacekeepers. As of now, not much is known of the attackers other than their size, roughly 50.
The Lord’s Resistance Army has a heavy presence in Eastern Congo and there is a possibility they could have been behind this attack. However, the LRA is not the only rebel group operating in the area. The Hutu rebels, who took part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, have been known to operate out of the area as well.
This CNN article has more details on the attack. An investigation is underway, but for now we can’t help but wonder if this is the LRA, or if it’s one of many other militia groups operating in the rebel haven the Congo has become. -Braden
ICC’s first trial involves child soldiers
Well first, let’s start off with a little background information. Thomas Lubanga is the founder and former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, a rebel group formed in 2001. The UCP, under Lubanga’s leadership, was accused of ethnic massacres, murder, rape, torture, and the conscription of child soldiers. On March 17, 2006, Lubanga became the first criminal ever arrested by a warrant sent out by the International Criminal Court. Lubanga is being charged with a war crime of “conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities.”
Some observers believe that this case has gone on far too long and feel it is deteriorating the credibility of the international court. The outcome of this case will have a great impact the international justice community. It can prove that the ICC can be efficient in bringing criminals to justice by convicting Lubanga, or it can prove critics right who claim the international court is still young, inexperienced, and unable to carry out a trial on this scale.
Check out this IRIN article for a full timeline of Lubanga’s trial.
-Braden
Discuss: Arizona’s border battle
We have all heard about Arizona’s controversial new law clamping down on immigrants in unprecedented ways. I’m from the state and I know too well how it’s divided the dinner table on several occasions. In fact, it seems to be doing so all around the country: 52% of Americans say the bill is about right, 17% don’t believe it goes far enough, and 28% think it takes it way too far.
Today, President Obama signed a bill that will be giving 600 million dollars in support to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to money, the bill also provides 1,500 new law enforcement agents, unmanned aerial vehicles, and 16 million dollars for additional communications equipment. Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano argued that this new Obama-signed bill will greatly reduce weapon and drug trafficking along the southern border.
To many Democrats and Republicans on Capital Hill and around the country, this sounds like a viable and agreeable way to go about comprehensive immigration reform. So what does Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio think about Obama’s decision to send this help? Well here is a link to a discussion between the Sheriff and CNN contributer Paul Begala. Let us know what you think. -Braden
13-year-old boy to pitch peace to North Korea’s leader
Imagine being 13 years old again. That would take us back to the 8th grade and for most of us that means sports, hanging out with friends, or doing homework. But for John Lee, a 13-year-old boy, born South Korean and raised in Mississippi, it means it is time to put everything in his life aside and travel to North Korea to promote his very own peace plan to Kim Jong Il. John’s mission is to build a “peace forest” in the dangerous demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea. His intentions are not only to help out the children, but also the environment, so included in his plan is a proposal to plant fruit and chestnut trees within this “peace forest.”
John told the Associated Press that his mission is ”Above politics, above borders, above conflicts, above ideology. It’s about giving hope to the people and the children all over the world.”
With the permission of the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, John and his family will be flying into Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital city, at some point today. I think it is appropriate to say that John Lee is one brave 13-year-old. We wish the best of luck to him, and his “peace forest.”-Braden
Update: Arrests made in the World Cup bombings
From BBC News:
Investigators in Uganda have arrested four men who they say masterminded twin bomb attacks that killed more than 70 people last month. The men, all of them Ugandan, admitted their involvement in the Kampala attacks during a news conference. They all spoke of their role in the attacks that struck a restaurant and a rugby club – the venues hosting fans watching the World Cup football final.After the attacks, a Somali Islamist group said it was behind them.
Al-Shabab said the bombings were in revenge for Uganda’s role in sending troops to Somalia as part of the African Union’s mission to support the besieged government there. Investigators in Uganda and Kenya have already detained a number of people they believe were connected to the attacks. But the BBC’s East Africa correspondent Peter Greste says it is the first time the Ugandan military say they have found the masterminds.The four suspects appeared in a press conference organised by military intelligence in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in Kampala, who attended the event, says the suspects were brought in one by one. Each gave detailed descriptions of how they were involved in the plot, he said. The suspects told the media that they had organised the attacks out of religious conviction. One of the men seemed remorseful and occasionally cried during his testimony, our reporter says.
“I know I’m a monster to you all because of the evil acts that I did… as I told you I wasn’t thinking straight,” he said.
BBC: LRA rebels on massive forced recruitment drive
We all know about Kony and his rebels operating back and forth between CAR and Congo in recent months. These countries have become the stage for their new campaign of massive forced recruitment. Here is BBC’s latest report on whats going on. -Braden
From BBC News:
Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been accused of going on a massive forced recruitment campaign in remote areas of central Africa. Human Rights Watch said the group had brutally abducted at least 697 adults and children over the past 18 months. Civilians were said to have been taken in remote regions of the Central African Republic (CAR) and the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has fought the Ugandan government since 1986. Its fighters, who are being hunted by Ugandan special forces, are now spread across northern DR Congo, Southern Sudan and the east of the CAR. ”They’ve been carrying out mass-scale abductions in order to replenish their ranks,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC’s World Today programme. Some of those abducted managed to escape, bringing with them tales of children forced to kill other children and trained to treat other human beings as animals.”The LRA tied the hands of the victims behind their back, a cord around their legs, and placed the victims face down on the ground,” a 12-year-old Congolese girl told Human Rights Watch.
Kenyan accused of harboring suspected terror suspects
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan man who once told authorities he was part of an al-Qaida plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is now facing charges in connection with last month’s terror attacks in Uganda but is free on bail, authorities said Wednesday.
Salmin Mohammed Khamis, 34, also was acquitted in 2005 in the bombing of a beachfront hotel, two years after he divulged the embassy plot. Khamis was never charged in connection with the embassy case and his statement to authorities was viewed by The Associated Press.
Under Kenyan law, a confession can only be acted on if it is made in front of a magistrate or judge. Confessions made during police interrogations are not admissible as evidence in court.
Khamis was one of seven people acquitted in the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa, Kenya in which 15 people died. He also was acquitted of charges in connection with a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane leaving Mombasa that same day.
Kenya’s anti-terrorism police chief, Nicholas Kamwende, confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the same man is now facing charges in connection with the Uganda bombings that killed 76 people. Khamis, though, is out on bail after a Mombasa court released him Monday.
He is accused of harboring three suspects in connection with the Uganda attacks, when a Somali al-Qaida-linked group, al-Shabab, attacked fans watching the World Cup final match on television at two locations. One of the Ugandan suspects came to Kenya to stay with Khamis after the July 11 bombings while the other two stayed in hotels in Mombasa, Kamwende said.
The spokesman for Uganda’s judiciary said the three men voluntarily confessed before two magistrates Tuesday evening that they were involved in the bombings. Eliasa Kisawuzi did not give details of the men’s confessions.
Kamwende said anti-terrorism police have been watching Khamis since his acquittal in 2005 and know that he has been to Somalia several times since. The last time Khamis tried to go to Somalia was in June, but police stopped him at the border town of Liboi, Kamwende said.
Back in 2003, Khamis told Kenyan investigators that al-Qaida planned to simultaneously drive a truck bomb and fly a small plane laden with explosives into the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. The men, however, did not set a date for their attack and it was not clear at the time whether Khamis’ arrest in July 2003 foiled the plan.
But the report provided a possible reason for the actions American and Kenyan authorities took in June and July 2003. For four days in June 2003, the U.S. Embassy was closed down and Kenyan officials banned flights from June 20-July 8, 2003 to and from Somalia.
Kamwende said Khamis is “most probably,” still in touch with the other men involved in the 2003 plot to attack the U.S. Embassy.
Kenyan authorities have been alert to terror threats since the 1998 car bombing of the old U.S. Embassy in downtown Nairobi, which killed 213 people including 12 Americans.
___
Associated Press Writer Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.
Sudanese villagers fights back against LRA
Sudan’s Arrow Boys Last Out At Vicious Militants, by Trevor Snapp.
Since being displaced from Uganda four years ago, a vicious group of militants — known as the Lord’s Resistance Army — has pillaged, murdered and raped its way through the remote forests of Central Africa and southern Sudan.
A new bill in Congress calls on the United States to come up with a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the cult-like group’s leader, Joseph Kony, and helping bring an end to the horrific violence. But civilians continue to suffer. Tired of waiting for help, many villagers in South Sudan are trying to fight back.
To protect themselves, residents of Western Equatoria state have formed self-defense forces in dozens of villages. The ad hoc commandos call themselves “Arrow Boys” after their most popular weapon — arrows dipped in poison.
The Conflict’s Toll
In Yambio, the small capital of Western Equatoria, the wailing starts when Land Cruisers appear at the end of a red dirt lane.
The first vehicle is full of soldiers bristling with AK-47s. The next car holds the bodies of a star education minister and his driver. The cars inch into a packed courtyard between low concrete houses, as a sobbing crowd presses up against the windows.
After decades of civil war, mourners like John Ngong are used to death. But for the many people gathered here, it is how the men died that disturbs them most: Ambushed while driving north to their home village of Tambura, the men were shot, hacked and burned to death by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“Even if they kill somebody, they say they want to crush all the heads,” Ngong says. “Most of our people are being killed like dogs. … We are praying [to] God that the world can look into our problem and see what they can do for us.”
But it is unclear how closely the world is looking into this problem. The LRA, which was born in Uganda 20 years ago, has spent the past four years ravaging the forest communities of Central Africa. The United Nations says they have killed thousands and displaced nearly 100,000 in South Sudan alone.
Although pursued by the Ugandan army, LRA’s fighters continue to target civilians.
In a crowded hospital, Tereza Polino lies with her arm in a cast, cinder holes in her only dress. The wiry widow was wounded in an attack near Tambura, a one-street town north of Yambio, where the forest meets the savanna.
A few days earlier, Polino says, a large group of dreadlocked, bearded LRA fighters had come to her home.
“They were smelling like animals,” she says. “They entered into my room, and they started collecting my clothes. Then, that time I attacked the person … then he took off the stick from me and beat my hand with it. … I fell down. He burnt my house.”
Above: Displaced residents of Zangia, which the LRA recently attacked, gather in Tambura. A recent flurry of LRA attacks in South Sudan has forced thousands of families to flee from their homes to larger towns and roadsides.
Striking Back
Like Polino, Arrow Boys are also fighting back.
The commander of the Arrow Boys in Tambura is a mild-mannered trader. An unlikely warrior, Michael Baiku sits in front of his brother’s trading posts, selling packets of crackers, Chinese underwear, soap and soft drinks.
It’s Sunday afternoon and everyone has had a couple of beers. It’s doesn’t feel like the town is under siege. But the Arrow Boys’ commander says it is.
“If we don’t patrol here … those people will come and enter the town,” Baiku says.
Later, Baiku and a sidekick take motorcycles 30 minutes outside of town, finally pulling up under a tree where a group of 50 Arrow Boys wait in the dusk. They have just returned from tracking a small band of LRA. Young and old, they carry spears, handmade guns forged over charcoal fires, the odd AK-47, and bow and arrows. Their leader, a thin farmer named Charles, has a bow and sports an extra-large neon orange T-shirt.
No one defends us, he says, not even the South Sudan army.
“Nobody followed up … looked after the dead people. And then that is why we formed our group,” Charles says. “Meanwhile, the LRA are killing us, so far better we can try to fight with them.”
A Wary Government
Arrow Boys are proud of their efforts. But the government isn’t as comfortable with locals taking matters into their own hands.
“At one stage, you feel like strengthening them by giving them more arms and ammo … but again you are cautious because they are not military people. They may end up shooting each other, or they may end up going to an ambush of an organized force, who will just shoot all of them or shoot most of them,” says Alfred Ngbakogbe, the state’s secretary-general.
And regardless of the Arrow Boys’ efforts, the LRA continues to kill — and families continue to flee. More than 15,000 people have been displaced in these recent attacks.
Today, Polino’s village is empty. The bustle of village life has been replaced by bird song. Many of the circular huts are reduced to ashes. Melted shoes, charred flashlights, pots of burnt maize are scattered on the ground.
On the outskirts of Tambura, Polino’s community surrounds a relief truck delivering shelters and blankets. Arrow Boys secure the area while babies cry and mothers wait patiently — displaced by a meaningless conflict, only miles from their home.
Going under the knife…and paying for it
Good is amazing. Here’s another fascinating infographic they just released. It gives some alarming stats about the plastic surgery industry in the US. Americans spent 10 billion dollars—yes, $10,000,000,000—on boob jobs, nose jobs, eyelid jobs, and all sorts of other cosmetic surgery jobs last year. In total, 12 million procedures.
Ten.
Billion.
Dollars.
–Andrew
Rwandan president announces elections will be free
President Kagame announces that elections will be free…but will they? “‘In my view these are not elections,’ former speaker of the Rwandan parliament and government critic Joseph Sebarenzi told the BBC. ‘Elections suppose competition and in Rwanda today you don’t have that competition because the leaders of political parties have been put in prison, other political parties were prevented from presenting their candidate because they were not registered. Those who are running are friends of Kagame,’ he said.” Shady for sure, but free? The verdict is still out. -Rebekah K.
From BBC News:
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has promised that next month’s elections will be free, following recent criticism from human rights groups. “Rwandan voters have the freedom to decide,” he said as he launched his campaign for the 9 August poll.
Several opposition critics have been killed or attacked recently – one senior official was buried as Mr Kagame was speaking. The government has denied involvement in the killing.
The BBC’s Geoffrey Mutagoma in Kigali says thousands of Mr Kagame’s supporters – many in his party colours of red, white and blue – filled up the Amahoro National Stadium for his rally, and more were unable to get in. Three other parties have launched their campaign but they are all seen as close to the president – two have been in government since 1994. Several other political parties have been blocked from taking part in the elections…
To read the rest of the article, go here.
Sudanese rebel group allows UN accountability
Complex and messy. Two words to describe the UN’s peacekeeping efforts (or lack thereof) in Africa’s conflict areas. However complicated it has been and still is, recent progress has been made towards more accountability in the Sudanese region. Darfur’s Justice for Equality (Jem) Movement has signed a deal with the UN that will allow them access to make sure they aren’t using child soldiers. Hopefully this will be a precedent for other rebel groups to follow. A huge step in the right direction towards accountability and deterrence…but still a long ways to go.
-Rebekah K.
From BBC News:
A Sudanese rebel group has signed an agreement to allow the UN access to its bases to check children are not being recruited as soldiers.
The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) told the BBC it had been trying to protect children since the beginning of the seven-year conflict in Darfur.
The UN said children found in military areas or in conflict zones could be removed under the deal. An estimated 6,000 children have been involved in fighting in Darfur.
The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the UN children’s organisation Unicef has hailed the agreement, which took more than a year to negotiate, as a very valuable precedent which it hopes other rebel groups would follow.
Jem leaders, who travelled to Geneva for the signing, said the movement had no child soldiers but agreed to it as a gesture of goodwill. “Jem has no child soldiers actually in its forces at all – and now Unicef has full access to our camps to verify,” Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussain Adam told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
Fighting intensified in Darfur in May after Jem pulled out of peace talks with the government, accusing it of acting in bad faith…
To read the rest of the article, go here.
Peace and Conflict Update
A Somali rebel group known as al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the bombings that took place in Kampala last Sunday. The Islamist insurgency stated that they were retaliating against Uganda’s role in the African Union peacekeeping mission stationed in Somalia. The attacks claimed the lives of 76 people, including our dear friend Nate Oteka Henn.
At least 7 people have been killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past week. Three children from the region surrounding Aba-Isiro road were abducted during the attacks, making it the second time in one week children from this area have been taken by the LRA. The lament Ugandan rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has continued their violent rampage through the North Kivu province of the DRC, displacing more than 30,000 people in the Beni territory.
Intelligence gathered by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has driven spokesman Major General Kuol Deim Kuol to warn the states of Western Bahr El-Ghazal and Equatoria that an attack by the LRA is imminent. A collection of LRA insurgents have reportedly taken refuge in the Central African Republic in an effort to regroup before launching any attacks. Kuol went on to accuse Northern Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of arming the rebel group in an attempt to destabilize the Southern region of Sudan ahead of a secession referendum posed to take place in early 2011.
Photo: Benedicte Desrus
A gathering to remember Nate
On Saturday, July 17th, the Invisible Children community will gather in the field at Mt. Soledad to remember, reflect, and celebrate the life of Nate ‘Oteka’ Henn.
We invite his fellow roadies, past interns, friends, family, and those impacted by his life to join us.
For those of you on the East Coast, there will be a public memorial in the coming days. We will keep you updated.
The details for the San Diego gathering are below:
A Gathering to Remember Nate ‘Oteka’ Henn 1985-2010
July 17th, 2010
7pm – 9pm
Mt. Soledad
6905 La Jolla Scenic Drive South,
La Jolla, CA. 92037
Come as you are, all are welcome.
In loving memory of Nate “Oteka” Henn
It is with deep sadness that we write to tell you that one of our dear friends has been lost in the terrorist attack earlier today in Kampala. Nate “Oteka” Henn was killed by an explosion that ripped through a rugby field where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the final match of the World Cup.
Nate worked with us at Invisible Children for a year and a half and leaves behind a legacy of honor, integrity, and service. From traveling the United States without pay advocating for the freedom of abducted child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s war, to raising thousands of dollars to put war-affected Ugandan students in school, Nate lived a life that demanded explanation. He sacrificed his comfort to live in the humble service of God and of a better world, and his is a life to be emulated.
Nate was determined to go to Uganda and see the homeland of the friends he had made on tour. His love for the Ugandan students he had worked with is exemplified by the deep friendships he forged with them. He was not serving some idea of down-trodden Africa. He was serving Innocent, Tony, Boni, Ronald, Papito, Sunday and Lilian. These are some of our Ugandan students who fell in love with Nate’s wit, strength, character and steadfast friendship. They gave him the Acholi name “Oteka”, which means “The Strong One.” Some of them were with him at the time of the attack.
Nate was not a glory-seeker and never sought the spotlight. He asked not to be made a hero of.
But the life he lived inspires reflection and imitation.
In a facebook status update he made just before his trip to Uganda, he wrote, “thank you for helping me achieve my dream of getting to Uganda” and while there he wrote home about being in the best days of his life and loving his time with his Ugandan friends.
Nate’s life ended while living out this dream, a selfless dream of putting others first, seeking peace, and living a life of integrity. He will be forever missed, forever remembered, and his legacy will live on in our love and deeds.
For more information and news about the terrible attack, click here for the New York Times article and here for a CNN article about Nate.
We will be keeping you up to date on any news about services for Nate, a vigil, and ways to support his family. Check back to the blog.
Sincerely,
the Invisible Children family.
War crimes: US vets and post-combat murder charges
This transparency from Good explores the connection between war-related PTSD (a result of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan) and stateside murders committed by veterans. The Times published a frightening article in 2008 that revealed 121 post-war cases of veterans being charged with murder after they’d returned to the US. Since then, another 43 vets have been charged. We’ve all seen pictures of servicemen fitted with cutting edge prosthetics; mainstream media has taught the world about IEDs, Walter Reed, and phantom limbs. What’s less common to read about, however, is the enduring mental shift that war foists upon its victims. The echoes of wartime memories stay with veterans for years—even decades—after soldiers have returned home to their families, friends, and jobs. –Andrew
Peace and Conflict Update
Rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) carried out an attack in the Sudanese state of Western Equatoria last Wednesday, killing at least one person and displacing hundreds. This comes just two weeks after an LRA ambush in the same area that resulted in the death of five people. The sole survivor of that attack, Wilson Ambola Olukalie, described three of the soldiers as children between the ages of 10 and 13. The surge of LRA-activity in Southern Sudan has resulted in an increase of internally displaced persons (IDPs) reliant on the limited amount of humanitarian aid available.
LRA-related violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has led the government to call upon the United States for support. Foreign Minister Antoine Gambi said in a speech on Sunday that “the danger the LRA represents for Uganda has been transposed to the Central African Republic. We hope that the United States of America can contribute to the efforts of the Central African armed forces, backed by the Ugandan forces, with the aim of neutralizing the LRA.” Presidential elections in CAR have been postponed twice due to violence in the regions affected by the LRA and are slated to begin this October.
(Photo by AFP.)Peace and Conflict Update
(REUTERS photo/Finbarr O’Reilly)
The Enough Project released a report earlier this week detailing Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) related activity in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR). According to the report, the Ugandan People’s Defense Force came extremely close to apprehending LRA-rebel leader Joseph Kony in CAR last year, but fell short due to a severe lack of domestic security and multilateral support. The report also calls upon the United States to deliver on their promise of developing a comprehensive strategy to alleviate Central Africa of the LRA.
The Eastern Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had a conflict-saturated week. The Allied Democratic Force (ADF), an otherwise inactive rebel group from Uganda, attacked and killed at least 16 people earlier today in the village of Mutwanga. The Congolese village sits in the Eastern region of the DRC bordering Uganda, where the government has begun increasing border security after reports of the ADF’s plans to target them. General Amuli Bahigwa of the DRC also confirmed that 80 Ugandan and Rwandan rebels have been killed at the Eastern Congolese border in an operation that began June 1st. The LRA attacked and raided multiple Eastern DRC villages last Sunday in search of food and supplies. At least two people were killed in the process.