The government of South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State has announced that it will be hosting a conference on the problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army early next week.

Western Equatoria and neighboring Western Bahr al Ghazal are the two states of South Sudan that have been affected by LRA activity in recent years since the LRA were driven from eastern Congo and fled into border regions of Congo, Central Africa, Sudan and South Sudan.

Governor Joseph Bakosoro said, “We have a conference next week in Yambio that is going to discuss the issue of LRA in the region,” explaining that the conference would discuss different aspects of the problem including dealing with LRA defectors.

“How do we deal with the problem of LRA in the country? How do we approach it?  If there are people coming out from the LRA group, what do we do with them?” he said.

“We need to address it wholesomely, in a way that it may not plunge this country again into turmoil,” explained the governor.  

He noted that the conference will start next Monday with visitors from Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and Central Africa. He said also some victims of the LRA have been invited to come speak to the gathering.

LRA leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and forced enlistment of children.

Earlier this month the United Nations released a report stating that the LRA was now “involved primarily in survival mode activities which entail attacking civilians, killing, looting and kidnapping.”

The report added that some LRA combatants are suspected to be in the Central African Republic, suggesting that some community leaders there may be colluding with the group.

Further, the report suggested that the leader Joseph Kony had recently entered into the disputed Sudan-controlled border region of Kafia Kinji, to the north of the Bahr el Ghazal region, though it did not speculate whether he had remained there.

File photo: Governor Joseph Bakosoro (Gurtong)

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