The fight against African warlord Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army became a cause célèbre on social media several years ago with the release of a documentary short called Kony 2012. Now the battle is finally coming to an end, as the subjects of the documentary have been reduced to “irrelevance” after years of US-backed operations against the militia.
Kony 2012 director Jason Russell engaged social justice warriors to turn the #Kony2012 Twitter hashtag into a global movement calling for the arrest of the cult leader, who forcibly recruited child soldiers to fight in the Lord’s Resistance Army. The army was created to establish a theocratic government in Uganda governed by the Ten Commandments. It has been tied to numerous atrocities, including rape, mutilation, and the abduction of children.
For three decades, the militia has engaged in terrorist activities and full-scale warfare throughout Uganda, South Sudan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic since 1987. As its leader, Kony is accused of displacing over 2 million people, killing more than 100,000 civilians, and conscripting at least 66,000 children into the army.
Following Kony 2012, Jason Russell had a very public mental breakdown, which was subsequently turned into a musical episode of South Park. Russell then vanished from public view. Likewise, both the popular hashtag and the subject of his documentary, Joseph Kony, dropped out of the limelight.
A top US military commander announced this week that the LRA is severely diminished due to US-backed operations coordinated against it, which include around 100 US Special Forces troops. Operations were already in full swing even before the release of Kony 2012.
“U.S. counter-Lord’s Resistance Army efforts have been largely successful, with most of the Lord’s Resistance Army degraded,” said Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, head of the Africa Command.
“The Lord’s Resistance Army poses a much reduced threat to regional security and does not currently threaten U.S. or western interests in the region. Nevertheless, AFRICOM continues to work with regional partners to counter illicit activities that support the Lord’s Resistance Army and other destabilizing influencers in the region.”
Gen. Waldhauser says AFRICOM will continue to monitor the situation, and continue to work with Ugandan military to ensure stability in the region to counter what’s left of the LRA, which he says has fewer than a hundred remaining fighters.
Joseph Kony remains at large, but he is believed to be in extremely poor health.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
