You can read Richard's account about what life was like inside the LRA here.

TO BE NOTED: From Resolve Uganda:

"First-hand account of what life in the LRA is like for an abducted child

March 25th, 2009 by alison in: Campaign Watch, Main Site, Update from HQ

I've thrown a lot of statistics at you over the past few months.. staggering numbers of displaced people, percentages of populations not receiving any humanitarian aid, frequency of LRA attacks and estimates of how many children have been stolen by the LRA in the Congo and southern Sudan.

In the midst of all these statistics, it's sometimes easy to forget that within each headline, those numbers are made up of individuals - each of them with their own unique story.

The bravery of people like Richard Mitambwoko, 17, who was abducted by the LRA in the Congoand escaped to tell his story, makes it a little harder, hopefully, for us to forget about the individual lives being impacted by this crisis.

You can read Richard's account about what life was like inside the LRA here. Here's some of what he had to say:

"Life with the LRA is not normal. What they do is use you to find other recruits, and when you come across them you have to hit them, you have to draw blood. This goes on all the time. It gets so that when they don’t kill you, you feel good. That's how it works – you just want to feel good.

I have no idea why the LRA are doing this. None at all. They are referred to as a Christian army, but there is no Christianity there. Anyone who says Joseph Kony and his soldiers are Christians is a liar. God doesn’t exist. If he did he wouldn’t let us be kidnapped, he wouldn’t let this happen.

Afterwards, reunited with my family, it was like a wake. Everyone was crying and crying and crying. I discovered that my 10-year-old sister had been taken, she had spent a month with them. My 13-year-old sister is still gone. There are still a lot of children in the bush with the soldiers.

I have nightmares all the time. I jump out of my sleep in fear, imagining the LRA are there and I have to go with them again."

have sought safety in South Sudan since attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) last year has now surpassed the 15,000 mark.

TO BE NOTED: You know it's bad when you're fleeing to Sudan:

"Influx of Congolese refugees into South Sudan continues

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 17 February 2009, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The number of Congolese refugees who have sought safety in South Sudan since attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) last year has now surpassed the 15,000 mark.

UNHCR staff late last week accompanied local South Sudanese authorities to Lasu, a sparsely populated village in Central Equatoria State where they found the population of Congolese refugees had swelled from 2,000 to approximately 6,000. Most of them fled from the DRC town of Aba, which has been attacked several times since January, the latest last week. Lasu is 45 km from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

There had been fears of a mass influx of refugees from Aba after last week's LRA attack. Refugees interviewed in Lasu by our team confirmed that Aba, with an estimated population of 100,000, was deserted. Earlier reports of large numbers of displaced people moving towards Central Equatoria in South Sudan appear to have been unfounded and it is now believed they have moved to the south based on accounts from the new arrivals in Lasu.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports from local residents indicate that LRA are also active in South Sudan, looting property and abducting 21 people in the village of Neuf, 9 km from Lasu.

Our team reports that refugees in Lasu are generally in good health but are in need of emergency assistance. They are living in the open, with only one well to share with the local population and no food. There are a dozens of unaccompanied and separated children, separated from their parents during flight. Aid agencies are coordinating assistance, including the provision of clean water and the emergency construction of latrines to improve the sanitation situation. WFP is sending food from Juba today (Tuesday) and UNHCR began a verification of refugees on Saturday. The relief effort is also being supported by UNICEF (water and sanitation), and MSF-Belgium and MEDAIR (health care).

Meanwhile, in South Sudan's Western Equatoria State, the registered population of Congolese refugees who fled LRA attacks in the Dungu area of north-western DRC in January has reached 9,139. The majority are in Ezo (2,258) near the Sudan's border with the Central African Republic, while others temporarily settled around Yambio in Gangura (2,451), Sakure (910) and Yambio itself (1,813). An additional 1,707 are scattered in seven villages in Yambio and Maridi Counties near Sudan's border with DRC. UN agencies are collaborating with local authorities to provide security and assistance to these populations.

It is critical to move all of these refuges away from border areas both for security reasons and to facilitate distribution of aid. Access to the refugees will soon become impossible when the seasonal rains begin in April and roads become impassable. Work is underway in other camps away from the border. Demarcation of plots at Makpandu camp, north of Yambio, is completed and construction of shelters is ongoing alongside installation of water and latrines. About 400 of the planned 2,000 shelters are completed. The transfer of those who are willing to move began in mid-December, with more than 1,000 relocated to date.

Story date: 17 February 2009
UNHCR Briefing Notes

"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

"Laws on land ownership in south Sudan remain vague, and have yet to be clarified in a planned land act"

Ponder this from the FT. I find it distasteful:

"US investor buys Sudanese warlord’s land

By Javier Blas and William Wallis in London

Published: January 9 2009 23:18 | Last updated: January 9 2009 23:18

A US businessman backed by former CIA and state department officials says he has secured a vast tract of fertile land in south Sudan from the family of a notorious warlord, in post-colonial Africa’s biggest private land deal( DOES THE WAR OWN THE LAND, OR SIMPLY CONTROL IT? ).

Philippe Heilberg, a former Wall Street banker and chairman of New York-based Jarch Capital, told the Financial Times he had gained leasehold rights to 400,000 hectares of land – an area the size of Dubai – by taking a majority stake in a company controlled by the son of Paulino Matip.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Quest to create a new Sudan bread basket - Jan-09

Map: Africa’s farmland grab - Jan-09

Mr Matip fought on both sides in Sudan’s lengthy civil war but became deputy commander of the army in the autonomous southern region after a 2005 peace agreement.

The deal, between Mr Heilberg’s affiliate company in the Virgin Islands and Gabriel Matip, is a striking example of how the recent spike in global commodity food prices has encouraged foreign investors and governments to scramble for control of arable land in Africa, even in its remotest parts.

In contrast to land deals between foreign investors and governments, Mr Heilberg is gambling on a warlord’s continuing control of a region where his militia operated in the civil war between Khartoum and south Sudan.( HOW NICE )

“You have to go to the guns, this is Africa( I'M SURE AFRICANS APPRECIATE THAT ),” Mr Heilberg said by phone from New York. He refused to disclose how much he had paid for the lease.

Jarch Management Group is linked to Jarch Capital, a US investment company that counts on its board former US state department and intelligence officials, including Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador and expert on Africa, who acts as vice-chairman; and Gwyneth Todd, who was an adviser on Middle Eastern and North African affairs at the Pentagon and under former president Bill Clinton at the White House.

Laws on land ownership in south Sudan remain vague, and have yet to be clarified in a planned land act( THAT WOULD BE JUST ONE OF MY CONCERNS ). For this reason, some foreign experts on Sudan as well as officials in the regional government, speaking on condition of anonymity, doubted Mr Heilberg could assert legal rights( HE JUST SAID THAT HE'S COUNTING ON THE WAR LORD AND HIS GUNS ) over such a vast tract of land. The deal is second only in size to the recent lease of 1.3m hectares by South Korea’s Daewoo from the government of Madagascar.

Mr Heilberg is unconcerned. He believes that several African states, Sudan included, but possibly also Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia, are likely to break apart in the next few years( HERE HE'S PROBABLY CORRECT. ), and that the political and legal risks he is taking will be amply rewarded.

“If you bet right on the shifting of sovereignty then you are on the ground floor. I am constantly looking at the map and looking if there is any value,” he said, adding that he was also in contact with rebels in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, dissidents in Ethiopia and the government of the breakaway state of Somaliland, among others.( IT DOESN'T SEEM TO MATTER TO HIM HOW THESE PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE ACQUIRED. )

The company was embroiled in a dispute with the south Sudan government over its claims to exploration rights for oil.

Mr Heilberg said Jarch had no expertise in agricultural development but would be seeking joint venture partners to cultivate the land( PR ), which is in one of the remotest parts of Sudan, in a region bordering the Nile river but with no tarred roads.

"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/)"