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It’s so nice catching up with old friends. [DW] After being driven out of Uganda, the Lord's Resistance® Army ran riot in the Central African Republic, where it behaved more like a criminal gang than a terrorist militia. Now the LRA's days seem to be numbered.
The Lord's Resistance® Army (LRA) was founded in northern Uganda in 1987 to chase President Yoweri Museveni
... President-for-Life of Uganda. He assumed office in 1985. His primary virtue is being prefereable to both his predecessors, Idi Amin and Milton Obote...
out of office and establish a Christian theocracy.
Continued from Page 3
After being driven out of the country by the Ugandan military, LRA fighters instilled terror among the region's politically unstable neighbors — particularly in southern Sudan and present-day South Sudan, the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
 ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo , which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
(DRC), and the southeastern Central African Republic (CAR).
"They came to the Central African Republic in 2008 and went on a rampage, especially in my home region of Haut Mbomou," recalled Ernest Mizedjo, who represents the country's far eastern communities in the parliament in the capital Bangui.
According to Mizedjo, the LRA committed many atrocities against civilians, especially in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
"They burned villages and tortured the inhabitants," he told DW. "Farmers could no longer cultivate their fields, hunters could no longer hunt and fishermen could no longer fish. They raped pregnant women and girls."
While the extent of atrocities committed by the LRA in the CAR is believed to be vast, he added, there are no official figures on the number of victims.
According to the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
(UN), more than 100,000 people were killed by the LRA across several countries and regions. Between 60,000 and 100,000 children have been kidnapped, and many were misused as child soldiers. More than one million people were displaced as a direct consequence of the attacks.
WHERE IS JOSEPH KONY?
The International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for the founder and leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony
 ... The Lords Resistance Army is a religious and military group formed in 1987. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and who is periodically possessed by demons, Beelzebub and Legion prominent among them. Kony advises his soldiers to draw crosses on their chests as a protection against bullets. This does't work, but nobody outside the LRA minds. The group is based on a hodge podge of apocalyptic Christianity, mysticism, and traditional Acholi religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on an odd interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The LRA is famous for systematic criminal conduct, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, forcing children to participate in hostilities, and occasional cannibalism. The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo...
, in 2005.
Kony's whereabouts are currently unknown. For some time he was thought to be hiding in the border region of Kafia Kingi, between Sudan and South Sudan.
US agents, UN soldiers, an African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
task force and members of federal armies in countries where the LRA is active are all searching for the rebel leader. But so far, no one has managed to catch him. The Ugandan army did not even have a picture of Kony until 2000.
"Nobody knows if Kony is still alive at all, or if the LRA fighters are still under his leadership, or whether the fighters are still held together by any kind of ideology," Adolphe Agenonga, an expert in geopolitics at the University of Kinsangani in DRC told DW. "What is certain is that the LRA is militarily very weak."
The former "army" now consists of splinter groups, he explained. The LRA is said to have only 200 to 1,000 fighters left in scattered groups, who presumably have no close contact with commander Kony.
FROM FIGHTERS TO BANDIDOS
"The LRA of today is not to be compared with the notorious army that made headlines in the international media in 2012," Agenonga added, explaining that sporadic attacks nowadays are carried out primarily to guarantee the survival of its members.
Many fighters also go underground by mingling with the nomadic Mbororo herders in the region.
"Of course, nomadic herders themselves are also sometimes victims of kidnappings and hostage-taking by LRA fighters," Agenonga said.
CAR MP Ernest Mizedjo agrees that the LRA fighters now behave more like a criminal gang that is trying to survive by staging raids and dealing in ivory.
"The LRA rebellion has turned into a business in recent years," he told DW. "They smuggle and trade arms across borders, supplying all sorts of other militias in northeastern DRC."
"They smuggle ivory and also trade in smuggled ivory from Sudan. So, the LRA has turned from a rebel group into a band of criminals doing illegal business. "
CAR CITIZENSHIP FOR JOSEPH KONY?
But there are indications that the LRA fighters in the CAR are growing tired of their way of life.
There are reports that some fighters have presented themselves to authorities, as confirmed by Judes Ngayakon, governor of the Haut Mbomou region.
"I recently received a delegation from the LRA who told me they were ready to hand over their weapons," Ngayakon told DW.
But that's not all: In the capital Bangui, there are rumors that Joseph Kony is ready to negotiate a ceasefire agreement. In return, he would want to be involved in a possible grinding of the peace processor — and be given CAR citizenship. CAR's Minister of Humanitarian Action, Virginie Baikoua, confirmed this correspondence to DW.
What's behind it then? Ernest Mizedjo believes all the evidence indicates that the LRA fighters have grown tired.
"They've probably lost moral too, and maybe it's just that they don't have a leader anymore," he said. "In addition to this, they simply don't have any support. Every rebellion needs a certain amount of support from the population." Mizedjo hopes this means that the farmers who fled their lands can now return to their fields.
Aubin Kottokpinze, who has been at the forefront of the fight against the LRA in CAR since his kidnapping in 2008, agrees. Today, Kottokpinze is the President of the Association of LRA Victims and advocates for justice above all else.
"We welcome the fact that the Ugandan rebels are leaving our country and laying down their arms," he said. "Our concern is that our state and the international community meet their responsibilities and acknowledge our suffering."
"We also want the perpetrators brought to justice. We ask the CAR government to support us in our quest for justice before the International Criminal Court." 
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