Alphonse Lamola (born 1971 in Omeri,

Gulu District Gulu is a City in the Northern Region of Uganda. The regional headquarters are located in the city of Gulu, which is also the administrative capital of Northern Uganda The city consist of two main divisions... Gulu west and Gulu east. Locatio ...

Northern Uganda The Northern Region is one of four regions in the country of Uganda. As of Uganda's 2014 census, the region's population was . Districts As of 2010, the Northern Region had 30 districts A district is a type of administrative division tha ...

) is a soldier in the

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...

Joseph Kony Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and various ...

operating in

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...

and the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

. Lamola was abducted in the mid-1990s, and had by 1999 risen to the rank of Lieutenant in the Army's Meno

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

, under the command of Owor Lakati. He later moved to the Safo battalion under Raska Lukwiya. After serving as

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...

to Kony for some time, Lamola rose to become his chief bodyguard when he moved to

Garamba National Park Garamba National Park is a nearly national park in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is among Africa's oldest parks, and was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980 for its protection of critical habitat for norther ...

in the spring of 2006. Later that year, he was placed in charge of the High Protection Unit (HPU), the main security group overseeing all the units tasked with protecting Kony and his families. He was later replaced by Otto Agweng, and given the leadership of a small unit (one of three composing the external wing of the HPU) tasked with protecting Kony's camp. Lamola was often selected to move with Kony to Nabanga and to establish a security perimeter before Kony's arrival. Lamola appears to have had a falling-out with Kony in mid-2011 and thereafter placed under the supervision of younger commanders in their twenties, who both protect him and prevent his defection. , Lamola's group was reportedly operating in the sparsely populated area north of the intersection of the Chinko and Vovodo rivers, in the

Mbomou :''Mbomou'' can also refer to the Mbomou River. Mbomou is one of the sixteen prefectures of the Central African Republic. It covers an area of and has a population of 132,740 (according to a 2003 census), giving a population density of only 2.2 ...

and

Haute-Kotto Haute-Kotto is one of the 16 prefectures of the Central African Republic. Its capital is Bria. It is the largest prefecture in the Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in C ...

prefectures of the Central African Republic. He reportedly holds the rank of Colonel.

Actions after 2014

It is believed that Lamola is operating in the Northern DRC as of 2016. On September 5, 2016, Lamola released four women and three children who had been held in long-term captivity by the LRA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamola, Alphonse People from Gulu District Lord's Resistance Army rebels Living people Year of birth missing (living people)