Katy Glassborow and Peter Eichstaedt in The Hague, with Emma Mutaizibwa in Kampala/IWPR - IWPR has investigated reports that the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, has embarked on a wave of abductions of civilians – many of them children – from the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). This would give the paramilitary force a different kind of focus from its past as a specifically north Ugandan group fighting the government in Kampala.

Interviews with a range of sources have confirmed that hundreds of abductions have taken place in these three countries, and that the purpose is to provide new conscripts for the group.

The captured civilians are being forced to undergo military training at the LRA’s base in the Garamba National Park in northeastern DRC, close to the Sudanese border and not far from the CAR. In February and March, the rebels appeared in southeastern CAR, in what at the time was thought to be a strategic permanent retreat from DRC, but ended up as a prolonged raid which yielded loot and captives.

“Our intelligence suggests up to 300 children have been abducted from CAR and the Western Equatorial Province of South Sudan by LRA rebels,” said Chris Magezi, the spokesman for the Ugandan military in his country’s negotiating team at peace talks which have been taking place in the South Sudanese capital Juba since summer 2006.

”It is a big possibility they are trying to rebuild their force,” said Magezi, noting that abducted persons were reported to be undergoing intensive military training.

In addition to the 300 abductions in Sudan and CAR referred to by Magezi, a UNICEF report covering the period to the end of March cited a figure of over 200 abductions in DRC. It said the source for this number was the United Nations mission in DRC, known as MONUC.

The abductions have taken place just as the peace process was nearing its conclusion after 20 years of conflict in northern Uganda, during which the LRA has terrorised civilians, mostly from the Acholi ethnic group, abducting minors to fight and serve as sex slaves and porters.

The negotiations, which began in July 2006, were looking promising until LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to turn up for the signing of a final peace deal in the South Sudanese border town of Ri-Kwangba on April 10.

LRA galvanising its forces

Many analysts say that while the LRA has ostensibly remained committed to the peace process, it has in fact been actively preparing for war. They fear that by absorbing hundreds of new conscripts from three different countries, who speak local languages and are familiar with the terrain, the group could reconstitute itself as a stronger regional force, rather than a specifically Ugandan group.

Analysts say the reports of recent LRA abductions suggest Kony is attempting to replace troops lost through surrenders, captures and defections when the rebel group fled from their base earlier this year.

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In DRC, a political affairs officer with MONUC said he thought the LRA was forcibly recruiting combatants.

“We think around 200 people have been abducted from CAR in the last few months. This gives us reason to believe the LRA are trying to rebuild their fighting force," he said.

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"We have had three escapees who have come forward and been debriefed by us – one from CAR, and two from Congo. They confirmed that they were being [given] military training and that it was in Acholi…and [the Congolese language of] Lingala,” he said.

Joseph Ngere, acting governor of Sudan’s Western Equatoria Province, confirmed that at least 80 people were being held captive by the LRA, mostly taken from the CAR border towns of Ezo and Sarsubo. However, he thought they had been taken by the LRA to help them carry looted goods, and also to create a smokescreen to conceal the rebels’ identity.

“There is often information that it is not the LRA operating in Western Equatoria, but other groups. When [the LRA carry out] operations, they often send these abductees to go ahead and this way they try to conceal their operations by having the local population around them. People from CAR can help them collect intelligence and information and bring it back to them,” he said.

Extract edited by HRT. See full text