The Barbarity of the Lord's Resistance Army

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch released a new report on atrocities that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels committed in the northeastern DR Congo during December 2009. The report, “Trail of Death”, details the massacre of more than 300 people in the Congo’s Haute Uele region last December.

Over a four-day period in December 2009, the LRA rampaged through a 105 kilometer swath of Haut Uele’s Niangara territory (maps available here). During this time, the rebels posed as Ugandan or Congolese soldiers, first re-assuring people in order to gather together village residents. After locals had congregated, the LRA tied victims up in human chains and forcibly abducted them. At approximately the same time, the rebels appeared to have looted towns for supplies and killed those who were considered of little use. It appears that the purpose of these repeated raids was to kill civilians, loot supplies and replenish the LRA’s force through forced recruitment. “Trail of Death” lays out the atrocities in gruesome detail, highlighting the threat that even small groups of rebels pose to civilians throughout Central Africa. 
 
BBC Correspondent Martin Plaut reports from the village of Tapili, the site of an LRA attack on December 15. Plaut speaks with survivors and describes the brutality with which the LRA treated the civilians living in the region after looting supplies and abducting locals to use as porters and soldiers.
 
While the Enough Project goes into further detail on the attacks committed by the LRA in the northeastern DR Congo in the report “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” published in early March, it appears that the rebels are operating much further afield. Early last week, the LRA was alleged to have attacked the village of Boka, in the Central African Republic. There are also increasing reports that the rebels may be moving towards the Darfur region of Sudan.
 
The LRA is a very real and ongoing threat to civilians throughout the regions in which it operates. For more information on the LRA and its activities, see our page on the Democratic Republic of Congo, or visit our partners, the Enough Project and Resolve Uganda.