Our partners at The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative recently released a comprehensive report entitled “Loosening Kony’s Grip: Defection Strategies for Today’s LRA”. The report was written by Phil Lancaster, PhD and Ledio Cakaj and edited by Paul Ronan. As part of their research, they interviewed 22 former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) combatants and abductees.
The report offers insight on the LRA and it’s ever-weakening state of operations, pointing out that at least 31 Ugandan LRA combatants, which make up approximately 15 percent of the group’s core fighting force, defected in 2012 and the first half of 2013. This fact reiterates what we already know: that “the LRA exists primarily as a vehicle to ensure the survival of Kony and a handful of senior commanders”, and that Ugandan combatants are growing tired of fighting. A former combatant who escaped in 2011, testifies to this claim:
“I left because this was a rebellion, I did not join it on my own, I was abducted when I was young. When I was fighting I was told that we were fighting a bad government. But I realized that things in the bush were bad and what I was told was not true. I had discussions with friends and realized that what they were preaching were lies. The one who was telling lies was the Big Teacher [Kony]”
The report goes on to give further detailed accounts of life within the LRA, how and why combatants and abductees choose to escape, and what international governments and organizations need to do to ensure a swift a permanent end to LRA. Click here to read the report in it’s entirety.
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