THE UN Security Council has condemned the increasing attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and the Sudan.
The attacks “have resulted in the death, abduction and displacement of thousands of civilians,” said Austrian ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, who this month holds the council’s rotating presidency.
The 15 members of the security council, sitting in New York on Tuesday, also praised the increased cooperation of regional governments in dealing with the serious threat posed by the LRA and encouraged them to cooperate with the United Nations to ensure the protection of civilians in the area.
For the first time, the council called on all UN missions in the region “to coordinate strategies for and information on the protection of civilians in light of the attacks by the LRA.”
The UN missions include MONUC (UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo), UNMIS (in the Sudan), MINURCAT (in the Central African Republic and Chad), UNAMID (African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur) and BONUCA (United Nations Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic).
The members of the Security Council also reiterated their demand that the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, immediately cease all attacks on civilians and urged them to surrender, assemble and disarm, as required by the Final Peace Agreement signed with Uganda.
A member of the Uganda delegation at the New York mission observed that: “The outcome from the meeting was significant. This positive development is due to the heightened pressure that Uganda is mobilising at the UN security council to deal with the LRA menace.”
In Washington DC, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a Bill requiring the Obama administration to develop a strategy to confront the LRA.
