The Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act () was a 2010 US

act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...

promoted by the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

that makes it American policy to kill or capture

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 ...

and to crush his

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 ...

rebellion. According to President Obama "the legislation crystallizes the commitment of the United States to help bring an end to the brutality and destruction that have been a hallmark of the LRA across several countries for two decades, and to pursue a future of greater security and hope for the people of

central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

". In October 2011 Obama announced that he would send 100 American military advisors to

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

to help the regional forces remove Joseph Kony "from the battlefield". However, they were not authorized to fight unless they were fired upon.

Response

Human rights advocates have reported that both the Ugandan army and the former

Sudan People's Liberation Army The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the South Sudan, Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 198 ...

, which forms the core of the new South Sudanese army, have exploited children as soldiers. Some of them criticized the U.S. decision to provide military assistance for armies accused of using child soldiers: "Countries that keep using child soldiers aren't going to get serious about ending the practice until they see the US is serious about withholding the money," said Jo Becker, child rights advocate at

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

. In addition, government forces of Uganda and its neighbour countries have themselves been accused of human rights violations such as attacks against civilians, use of child soldiers and looting of civilian homes and businesses. On the other hand, Human Rights Watch executive director

Kenneth Roth Kenneth Roth (born September 23, 1955) is an American attorney, human rights activist, writer. He was the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) from 1993 to 2022. Early life Kenneth Roth was born on September 23, 1955 in Elmhurst, Illino ...

welcomed U.S. efforts to bring "war criminals in Africa" to justice, adding: "In fact, we RWoften find ourselves urging governments to use their coercive power more assertively to protect civilians. We want to see Joseph Kony and others responsible for atrocities – whether they are abusive leaders in countries like

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, or terrorists who kill civilians, brought to justice."Lawfare - Human Rights Watch Responds
/ref> There has also been a more realist analysis of President Obama's decision to send military advisers to the region, with some suggesting that the assistance was a reward for Ugandan assistance in

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

References

External links

"Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009"
full text on THOMAS at the Library of Congress Lord's Resistance Army United States foreign relations legislation Acts of the 111th United States Congress Uganda–United States relations {{US-fed-statute-stub