"People live in fear in the forest. Many of them are unable to move, as they fear that the LRA is going to attack them."

Although we see signs of peace in the Congo, the LRA is still on the loose. From the UNHCR:

A young girl injured in an attack on Duru village in Orientale province. © UNHCR/D.Nthengwe

Survivors of Lord's Resistance Army attacks urgently need assistance

DURU, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 16 (UNHCR) – UNHCR members of a joint United Nations team expressed shock Friday at the physical condition of civilians who have survived repeated attacks in recent months by Ugandan rebels on their village in the northern Congolese province of Orientale.

The UN team flew by helicopter to Duru on Wednesday and reported that this once vibrant village was deserted and overgrown with vegetation after attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

First attacked by the LRA in September, Duru was again targeted by the rebel group earlier this week, leaving four people dead and the village a virtual ghost town. Back in September, the village had some 6,000 inhabitants. Now, less than 1,000 people remain.

Some of the survivors remaining in the vicinity came out of hiding to meet the visitors. They were traumatized and in urgent need of assistance. Many were clad in rags and looked famished and weak after spending nights in the bush without blankets or shelter. "We are hungry and we are poor," said one man. ( GOOD LORD )

The UN refugee agency field officers heard accounts of atrocities carried out by the LRA fighters when they raided Duru on Monday and Tuesday, killing four people, injuring an infant girl and abducting a nine-year-old boy. "I feel sad for my daughter," said the mother of the four-year-old shot in the leg. "She has lost her father," added the woman, who has two other children.

More than 560 ( 560 )civilians have been killed since the LRA began its campaign of violence last September in an area of Orientale province near the Democratic Republic of the Congo's borders with Uganda and South Sudan. This UNHCR estimate includes the victims of reported attacks this week on Duru and Diagbe, further to the north. More than 115,000 people are believed to have been forcibly displaced by the violence and the figure is likely to grow.

The villagers in Duru told UNHCR that the rebels looted and torched their houses, forcing residents to flee into the forest. Some of them made their way towards Dungu, a regional centre some 90 kilometres to the south where UNHCR has a team. Another 2,000 have crossed into Sudan.

The survivors seen in Duru told UNHCR that they did not feel safe, fearing new assaults, rape and abductions. There are no medical personnel in the village and no medicine. The villagers also said it was not safe to drink water from the wells. ( AWFUL )

Aid agencies face enormous logistical challenges reaching communities affected by the LRA attacks. Duru, for example, can only be reached by helicopter with a security escort of UN peace-keepers. Limited physical access, insecurity and impassable roads are hampering both the delivery and the distribution of relief supplies.

Aid is, however, coming to other parts of Dungu district. On Tuesday, a UN convoy carrying 70 tonnes of food and aid items provided by UN humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR, reached Dungu. The trucks spent 10 days on the road after picking up the World Food Programme and UNHCR aid in Goma, the capital of neighbouring North Kivu province.

In the coming days and weeks, the UN refugee agency and its partners hope to reach some 100,000 displaced people in locations such as Duru, Faradje, Doruma, Watsa and Isiro, which have not received any assistance since September. More joint missions are planned to threatened areas this weekend to assess the scale of the displacement and needs of the population.

By David Nthengwe
in Duru, Democratic Republic of the Congo

By Margarida Fawke
In Dungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo"

From Peter Eichstaedt:

"Condemnation, but no action( GREAT )

The United Nations Security Council has once again condemned the atrocities that are currently being committed by the Lord's Resistance Army.

On Friday, the UNSC issued a press statement, read aloud by the Council President Jean-Maurice Ripert of France, which chairs the council this month.

Here it is:

"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the recent attacks carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which have resulted in over 500 dead and over 400 abducted, as well as the displacement of over 104,000 people. The members of the Council expressed their grave concern at the scale of these atrocities and emphasized that those responsible must be brought to justice.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated the statement of the President of the Security Council 22 December 2008. The members of the Council expressed their deep concern that the Council’s previous calls for the LRA to cease its attacks, and recruitment and use of children, and to release all women, children and non-combatants, have not been heeded.

"The members of the Security Council demanded that the members of the LRA cease all attacks on civilians immediately, and urged them to surrender, assemble, and disarm, as required by the Final Peace Agreement."

Does the world need yet another strongly worded statement? It seems that the LRA, and its leader Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium, has committed enough atrocities in the past twenty-two years( 22 YEARS ) to warrant more than grumbling from the UN's guiding council.( TOO TRUE )

The French like to present themselves as the bastion of "liberty, fraternity, and equality," but they're disinclined to do much to enforce those values. ( THEY DID A GREAT JOB IN RWANDA )

It's not as though France couldn't.

As I stated last week during a interview on BBC radio's The World Today show, putting an end to Kony and the LRA's endless rampages will take more than letting the Ugandan army wander around the jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It will take a well-trained and well-equipped force authorized by the UN and composed of international troops with the specific goal of capturing or killing Kony.

This is not without precedent. It's been done before in other African countries, including eastern DRC when the inept horde of UN peacekeepers there, which number an astounding 17,000 soldiers, were unable to keep the peace. The UN authorized a limited European Union force to enter the country, settle the situation, then pull out. It worked.

Such a force is sitting very close by. It's called European Force, or Eufor, and is about 5,000 EU troops, mostly French, who are in eastern Chad on the border with Sudan.( THEY'VE DONE A GREAT JOB HELPING OUT IN SUDAN )

They're positioned as a deterrent to any further invasions by the Sudan-backed rebels who attacked the Chad capital of Ndjamena last February. And, some speculate that the force may be there to help protect Chad's oil fields( YES. THEY'RE NOT THERE TO STOP GENOCIDE. BETWEEN RWANDA AND SUDAN, FRANCE DOESN'T HAVE A RECORD OF CARING ABOUT GENOCIDE. ), which are pumping out crude that is piped to the west coast of Africa via Cameroon.

But, there's not much for them do these days. Why can't the UN send them in for one-month mission? It's clear the Ugandan army needs help, as does South Sudan and the Central African Republic, where most say the LRA is headed.

The Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA), which is South Sudan's army, has found dozens of body of people believed to be killed by the Ugandan Lord Resistance Army (LRA) after being abducted.

And, the BBC reports that rebels attacked a village in the DRC this week, killing four people, including a girl of four and abducting a boy of nine. A bishop in South Sudan says two men had their hands and legs chopped off and were beaten to death, as boys watched.

The BBC noted that the LRA now operates in at least four countries in the region, and that the CAR has sent troops to its border with DR Congo in an effort to push back the rebels.

The survivors of the LRA attacks told a UN agency that the rebels looted and torched their houses, forcing them to flee into the forest.

"What we saw was shocking," David Nthengwe, UNHCR spokesman for eastern DR Congo, told the BBC. "People live in fear in the forest. Many of them are unable to move, as they fear that the LRA is going to attack them."

Clearly the Ugandan army is not making much progress. Yet, the Eufor sits there in Chadian desert, just an hour away by air.( GOOD LUCK WAITING FOR THESE HUMANITARIANS )

Posted by Peter Eichstaedt at 9:45 AM

"Another 408 people have been kidnapped by the LRA since the outbreak of violence in September last year"

From the UNHCR:

"UNHCR concerned about displaced Congolese and continuing LRA attacks

DUNGU, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 13 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Tuesday expressed mounting concern about the plight of more than 100,000 Congolese civilians force to flee their homes to escape attacks by a rebel Ugandan force in the northern province of Orientale.

"We are increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation and continuing attacks by ... the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, adding that the death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) province bordering Uganda and South Sudan is now estimated at 537 people.

"Another 408 people have been kidnapped by the LRA since the outbreak of violence in September last year, including victims abducted in attacks over the past four days," said the spokesman, citing figures gathered by UNHCR staff in the town of Dungu.

Rough estimates of the number of forcibly displaced in this part of the DRC have now surpassed 104,000. Many of these internally displaced people (IDP) are still hiding in the bush, particularly in areas around the town of Faradje, which was heavily hit during the Christmas period. Out of an estimated 37,000 people who escaped from Faradje, some 16,000 have been registered so far in Tadu and surrounding villages south of Faradje. More than 10,000 of them are children.

In the Dungu area, which was attacked by the LRA last September, the local Red Cross has just completed the registration of displaced in the town and 27 nearby villages. Out of 54,777 IDPs registered, more than 27,000 are women and nearly 15,000 are children under the age of five.

The Congolese, Sudanese and Ugandan armed forces began a joint military operation against the LRA in mid-December.

The latest series of LRA attacks targeted villages and settlements south-west of Faradje. The village of Tomati, 57 kilometres south-west of Faradje, was reduced to ashes on Saturday. LRA attacks Friday and Sunday on Sambia, a mining village some 75 km from Faradje, left at least seven people dead.

"Throughout the region, sightings of LRA rebels are causing panic and new displacement. Our staff in Dungu reported this morning that there are considerable, ongoing population movements in the direction of Faradje and areas south of Dungu. In addition, 2,000 people have reportedly arrived in Ezo in neighbouring South Sudan," the spokesman said.

The UN refugee agency is extremely concerned about civilians who are caught in a conflict zone near the borders of the DRC, the Central African Republic and Sudan. According to local health authorities, the population in the Doruma area is about 56,000 people. In the Faradje district, also the scene of frequent clashes over the past few weeks, there are some 350,000 residents.

The displaced population is in dire need of food, shelter, medicine, clothes and other aid items. The area, which by itself poses immense logistical challenges due to the lack of decent roads, remains highly volatile. Safe humanitarian access remains a key challenge for UNHCR and other agencies as they strive to bring assistance.

By Margarida Fawke
In Dungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo"

Add this to the previous post, and you have some idea how bad things are getting in an already dismal situation.

"The number of dead just keeps going up. Since the beginning of these operations, it is the civilians who are dying,"

From the Congo. It just never seems to end for it. Now the pestilence of the War Criminals of the LRA. From Reuters:

"By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Twenty people were killed in a raid by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels on a park ranger station in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said on Monday.

Dozens of LRA fighters attacked the headquarters of the Garamba National Park in the town of Negero, in Congo's Orientale province, late on Friday.

"Ten people were killed, including two women, two park rangers, an electrician and five other civilians who have not yet been identified," Orientale's Deputy Governor Joseph Bangakya told Reuters.

Ten rebels were also killed in the four-hour gunbattle with armed park rangers and Congolese soldiers based at Negero's airstrip as part of a three-week-old multinational assault on LRA strongholds in northeastern Congo, Bangakya said.

In two separate attacks on Sunday, LRA gunmen raided a protestant mission in the Congolese village of Napopo and attacked Laso, a village in Sudan, local officials said. It was not immediately clear whether anyone died in the incidents.

Forces led by Uganda and including Congolese and South Sudanese soldiers began bombing LRA bases in the park on Dec. 14 after the rebels' leader Joseph Kony again failed to sign a deal to end his rebellion against Uganda's government.

The operations received the unanimous blessing of United Nations Security Council member states. Ugandan and Congolese officials have said the offensive succeeded in destroying most of the LRA's bases in Congo.

However, coalition forces have so far failed to locate Kony, who along with two deputies is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and his rebellion is now waging a brutal campaign against local villagers.

"CIVILIANS DYING"

Fleeing LRA fighters killed at least 271 people in a series of Christmas week massacres that forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Catholic humanitarian charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 people died in the attacks on the towns of Doruma and Faradje, which had been left undefended by coalition forces.

"The number of dead just keeps going up. Since the beginning of these operations, it is the civilians who are dying," said Felicien Balani, who heads a coalition of civil society groups.

Estimated to number between 800 and 1,000 fighters, Ugandan and Congolese officials say the LRA has now splintered into smaller groups. Some are believed to be heading towards neighbouring Central African Republic, where the rebels have carried out raids in the past.

"We are facing criminal behaviour by fleeing forces. A deployment is underway. But we are there in a vast territory, and it's being done at the rhythm of our air capabilities," Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said.

Uganda has said it is sending more troops to the area to prevent more LRA raids.

The LRA was driven out of northern Uganda, where its two-decade bush war killed thousands of people and displaced 2 million, but the group has continued to carry out raids in Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic. (Editing by Daniel Magnowski) (daniel.magnowski@reuters.com; Dakar Newsroom +221 33 864 5076)) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)"

"massacred nearly 200 people in Congo last week, United Nations officials said Monday."

Not a good start to the day. From the NY Times:

"By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Lord’s Resistance Army( THEY CERTAINLY DO RESIST THE LORD ), the fearsome Ugandan rebel group notorious for its lurid violence and penchant for turning children into killers, massacred nearly 200 people( 200 PEOPLE KILLED ) in Congo last week, United Nations officials said Monday.

The rebels were being chased by a multinational military offensive against them, and as they fled, they hacked to death dozens of villagers in their path, according to Ugandan military officials.

The killings may not be over. Most of the rebels escaped the military offensive and have scattered across a vast swath of rugged territory in the northeastern corner of Congo.

“The civilian population is really in danger,” said Ivo Brandau, a United Nations spokesman in Congo. “They are under attack.”

The Lord’s Resistance Army used to be the bane of Uganda’s existence. Starting in the late 1980s, the rebels terrorized villages in northern Uganda, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing nearly two million. They were notorious for kidnapping girls and boys as young as 10 and forcing them to serve as sex slaves and in death squads. They were driven by a strange mix of political grievances, bloodlust and self-proclaimed fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

The Ugandan military drove the rebels out of Uganda about five years ago and the rebels have been mostly hiding out in a thickly forested area of northeastern Congo ever since. There have been several high-profile efforts, backed by the United Nations and the United States, to persuade Joseph Kony, the rebel’s phantom-like commander, to surrender.

The latest peace effort failed in late November when once again Mr. Kony did not show up to sign a peace agreement. The armies of Congo, Uganda and semiautonomous South Sudan then teamed up to wipe out the rebel bases.

But the rebels are known as excellent jungle fighters. They often carry solar panels on their backs to power their satellite phones and they can live on very little food and water. In the past several weeks, they seemed to have eluded the government troops and airstrikes.

In the process, they have raided several Congolese villages, possibly to signal that they are still a lethal force to be reckoned with. According to United Nations officials, the rebels struck a village called Faradje on Thursday, killing 40 people. Over the next two days, they attacked two more villages, Doruma and Gurba, killing 149 more people.

Ugandan military officials have said that most of the victims were women and children, who were cut into pieces. A rebel spokesman denied responsibility for the killings, telling Agence France-Presse that the rebels were not in the area.

Mr. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity."