Terrorist Organization Profile:
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

LRA attacks have been notable for both their brutality and their pointlessness. Two popular nightspots have been bombed, a bus full of people was attacked by club-wielding LRA soldiers who caused 22 fatalities, and an Italian priest was murdered. Other victims include World Food Program volunteers, the former President of Uganda, and mourners at a funeral, who were forced to cook and eat the body of the deceased. No discernible political program underlies these attacks aside from Kony's desire to cause extreme pain and suffering to all Acholi tribes that do not support the LRA.

In 2002, the Sudanese government reversed its longstanding policy of support for the LRA and began cooperating in efforts to eliminate the group's sanctuaries. Despite this declaration, the LRA continued to perpetrate its brutal attacks within Uganda, both in its longstanding operational area in the north, as well as on targets to the east.

The struggling peace process gained renewed attention in November 2006, when Jan Egeland, the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, traveled to LRA camps near Ri-Kwangba along the Sudan-Uganda border. Egeland and Kony were scheduled to meet, each bringing their own objectives to the table. Egeland was particularly interested in obtaining the release of Acholi women and children abducted by the LRA and held in the camps, while Kony sought to gain an ally in his case with the ICC. The actual meeting, despite being cordial, was brief and did not produce the desired outcomes for either side. When confronted with the possibility of releasing the women and children, Kony denied their existence. However, the fact that the meeting took place without any problems, as well as generated publicity by the attendance of a UN official such as Egeland, creates a positive scenario for the tenuous peace talks. Additional visits from UN representatives may be a necessary tactic to foster stability in the surrounding region.

Learn more about these U.S. Department of State classifications:

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)

Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL)