KAMPALA (Reuters) – Responding to an Internet campaign backed by celebrities who want Uganda to capture fugitive warlord Joseph Kony and save child soldiers, the government complained yesterday it needed more help from its African neighbours.
In particular, a Ugandan spokesman said, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was obstructing its US-backed hunt for Kony and the remnants of his Lord’s Resistance Army, seven years after the feared rebel group was largely driven out of Uganda.
While saying most LRA fighters were in the Central African Republic (CAR) – a fact underlying Uganda’s frustration with the campaign which went viral last week – Fred Opolot added that some were in the DRC: “Being unable to have unimpeded access to Congolese territory, where these remnants are, is obviously a major hindrance to the hunt for Kony,” he told Reuters.
Opolot, director of the Ugandan government media centre, said that efforts were going to give the Ugandan army, the People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), the same freedom to operate in the DRC as it had in the CAR and other neighbouring countries.
“There are some bilateral talks going on to secure access to Congo and we wish they succeed so that UPDF can operate there whenever LRA threats arise,” he said.
A video posted on YouTube by a film-maker in San Diego has been viewed by tens of millions of people, promoted on Twitter with tags that include #Kony2012 and endorsed by the likes of Justin Bieber, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey.
