US troops now in 4 African countries

Πηγή: IOLnews

By Jason Straziuso

Feb 23 2012

Nairobi - US troops helping in the fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army are now deployed in four Central African countries, the top US special operations commander for Africa said Wednesday.

The US announced in October it was sending about 100 US troops - mostly special operations forces - to Central Africa to advise in the fight against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the top US special operations commander for Africa, said the US troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic.

“We've already seen a decrease in the lethality of LRA activities, which we think is attributable in part to the pressure we and our partners are applying,” Losey said in a telephone briefing to journalists.

Losey said counter-LRA actions will increase in frequency and effectiveness in coming months.

The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. Since being pushed out of Uganda several years ago, the militia has terrorized villages in Central Africa.

A top State Department official, Karl Wycoff, said that Kony has shown the ability to mobilize combatants and militant leaders to carry out “horrible atrocities” for the LRA, which he called “some kind of cult,” given that the group has no clear agenda. He said the US effort was not just aimed at Kony but at all the LRA leaders.

However, Col. Felix Kulayigye, the spokesman for Uganda's military, said the hunt for Kony was an important aspect of the anti-LRA effort.

“Kony is the LRA and the LRA is Kony,” he said. “Other than Kony the only other person who had the capacity to sustain the LRA was (Vincent) Otti, who is gone. You get Kony and you have the LRA done.”

Otti, Kony's former deputy, has been presumed dead since the failure of peace talks mediated by South Sudan ended in 2008. Ugandan army officials say Kony ordered his death, fearing he was about to defect.

The LRA's tactics have been widely condemned as vicious. The US troops are helping to fight a group that has slaughtered thousands of civilians and routinely kidnaps children to be child soldiers and sex slaves.

The anti-LRA group Resolve in a report released Wednesday urged the US to encourage Uganda to dedicate more troops and helicopters to their counter-LRA operations. The group also urged the US to fund more transport helicopters and improved communications equipment for Ugandan troops, and to increase intelligence gathering by expanding the use of aerial surveillance.

Losey said there are no drone aircraft currently being used by US troops involved in the counter-LRA fight. US forces are working on improving communications in the region and how to integrate intelligence.

Many of the US forces are stationed in Uganda. Others are based in Obo, Central African Republic; Dungu, Congo; and in Nzara, South Sudan, Losey said. Each of those locations had established bases where troops from partner countries have been based.

The LRA operates in an area the size of California, Losey said.

President Obama is sending troops to aid Africa anti-insurgency

President Barack Obama is greeted Friday upon his arrival at Wayne County Airport in Detroit, en route to a General Motors assembly plant in Michigan. He and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak traveled to Detroit to promote the free trade agreement between Washington and Seoul that was passed by Congress this week.

Πηγή: Syracuse
By AP
Oct 14 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama said Friday he’s dispatching roughly 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to help battle the Lord’s Resistance Army, which the administration accuses of a campaign of murder, rape and kidnapping children that spans two decades.

In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops will act as advisers in efforts to hunt down rebel leader Joseph Kony but will not engage in combat except in self-defense. The White House says the first troops arrived in Uganda on Wednesday. Ultimately, they’ll also deploy in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Long considered one of Africa’s most brutal rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army began its attacks in Uganda more than 20 years ago but has been pushing westward.

The administration and human rights groups say its atrocities have left thousands dead and have put as many as 300,000 Africans to flight. They have charged the group with seizing children to bolster its ranks of soldiers and sometimes forcing them to become sex slaves. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court under a 2005 warrant for crimes against humanity in his native Uganda.

Obama’s announcement came in low-key fashion -- a letter to House Speaker John Boehner in which he said the deployment “furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.”

The deployment drew support from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who has visited the region. “I have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the LRA, and this will help end Kony’s heinous acts that have created a human rights crisis in Africa,” he said in a statement. “I have been fervently involved in trying to prevent further abductions and murders of Ugandan children, and today’s action offers hope that the end of the LRA is in sight.”

But Obama’s letter stressed the limited nature of the deployment. “Our forces will provide information, advice and assistance to select partner nation forces,” it said. “Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will ... not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense.”