A new report by a US based advocacy group, The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative, has blamed the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels for renewed violent attacks on unarmed civilians in the Central African Republic (CAR) which has left 17 people dead.
The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative publishes the LRA Tracker Report.
The latest report accuses the LRA of perpetuating 210 attacks from April 29, last year to date.
During the same period the rebels are said to have abducted at least 693 civilians, representing an 8.2 percent increase in attacks by the rebels on unarmed civilians.
The most recent attack by the rebels was reported on March 05, 2016 were LRA numbering 30 attacked the community of Tabane, CAR and looted food and non-food items, as well as communications equipment and abducted 12 civilians. The rebels also two houses on fire and killed two civilians before fleeing with their loot.
According to the report, the rebels also carried out 194 attacks which killed 15 and another 688 abducted. The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative says this represents an increase of 13.3 percent in fatalities and a 0.7 percent increase in abductions by the LRA.
The hardest hit areas are Rafai and Mbomou, all in the CAR.
The advocacy group notes that the recent LRA attacks highlight gaps in civilian protection in eastern CAR, despite the presence of troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR (MINUSCA), the African Union’s counter-LRA Regional Taskforce (AU RTF), and the US military.
“The LRA is once again abducting children in central Africa, betting that the international community will fail to protect those most vulnerable to Kony’s forces,” said Paul Ronan, director of The Resolve. “So far in 2016, that bet has paid off.”
The LRA is originally a Ugandan rebel group but were flushed out of Uganda in 2006 and has since then been active in the Great Lakes region mostly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central Africa Republic (CAR).
The rebel group is classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. It is reported to be involved in elephant poaching in the massive Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ivory, reports say, is a key lifeline for the rebel group whose fighting strength has greatly diminished since being flushed out of Uganda.
