The Lord's Resistance army

Lily Elfrink will detail the story of the African terrorist group called The Lord's Resistance Army in this editorial, and the suffering they caused that went majorly unnoticed by the U.S.

The Lord's Resistance Army

By Lily Elfrink

Photo: U.S. Air Force

In 1987, a man named Joseph Kony founded the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA is a Christian extremist and terrorist group that aimed to have Acholi nationalization and Christian rule in Uganda. The group was most active in Northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. In 2006, the LRA withdrew its forces from Uganda, but remained active in South Sudan, the DRC, and the CAR, and are still active in those countries today.

The LRA sprang up from the ashes of the Holy Spirit Movement army, which was founded by Alice Auma Lakwena, a priestess and distant relative of Kony. Kony acted on the power vacuum left from the defeat of a resistance movement in Northern Uganda and the election of President Yoweri Museveni. The LRA was first known as the United Holy Salvation Army, and then the Uganda Christian Army/Movement before finally being called the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA swiftly became known for their harsh and violent acts against thousands of innocents and led a brutal rebellion against the newly instated president. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in 2005 Kony and some of his comrades were charged with 12 counts of crimes against humanity, including sexual enslavement, murder, enslavement, rape, and 21 counts of war crimes including cruel treatment of civilians, murder, intentionally leading an attack against a civilian population, inducing rape, the forced enlistment of children into rebel ranks, and pillaging. The International Criminal Court released warrants for their arrest and raised global awareness of the atrocities committed by the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA wished to form a government based on a twisted version of the Ten Commandments, while simultaneously committing acts that were unimaginably brutal and against said Ten Commandments.

Photo credit: Getty Images

The LRA needed people to fill their deadly ranks-- a lot of people. When adults stopped willingly joining the army, the LRA started doing the obvious-- abducting children to be their slaves, sex workers, and militia. In 2015, the Guardian stated that the LRA had abducted over 60,000 children. And that was over six years ago.

Photo credit: Invisiblechildren.com

The horrific acts committed by the terrorist group are said to be almost as sick and depraved as those of the Holocaust in WWII, but are not even a quarter as widely known. The organization Invisible Children was founded in 2004 by Jason Russel, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole to bring awareness to the activities of the LRA and Joseph Kony. They produced a documentary by the same name to tell the story of the children who live in fear of being abducted and study by candlelight in tunnels and under verandas, guarded by men armed with AK-47s. The three men filmed the footage during a trip to the province of Gulu, and this documentary is being shown in Wellness classes here at Grants Pass High School. Educating students on these subjects helps them to receive a more rounded education, and to learn the influences of other children around the world. While Joseph Kony’s reign of terror is slowly coming to an end, the fear he instilled in the people and children of Northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic will not be going away as quickly.

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