The violence committed against Congolese and Southern Sudanese civilians by the Lord’s Resistance Army is worse than previously thought. Last Friday, GI-NET cited conservative reports of at least 620 people killed by the LRA since September. Reports issued this week indicate that over 1120 civilians have been killed, nearly doubling our original estimate.
One of Africa’s longest running conflicts took a turn for the worse this week. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has been fighting the Ugandan government in an attempt to establish a theocratic state based on the 10 commandments, abducted 50 school children and killed 3 people along the Congo-Sudan border this week. South Sudan’s military also said that LRA rebels attacked one of its units, killing one soldier and setting a child on fire along the remote Sudanese border with the DR Congo.
In a story that gets little media attention, the peace process in the Central African Republic appears to be in disarray. President Francois Bozize, who came to power in a 2003 coup, and two major rebel groups agreed to peace in June, but recent talks to finalize the agreement resulted in rebel groups and opposition parties walking out. The peace agreement was hailed as having the capability to end the seemingly endless conflict in CAR, yet now it looks like it is just another failed attempt to restore order.
