''Kony could return to Sudan any time''

SUNDAY VISION

By Charles Etukuri and Agencies

An America-based organisation, The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative, has released satellite images of a military encampment believed to belong to Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army within Sudan in an area near the border with the Central African Republic (CAR).

In a report released with the images on Friday, the organisation says the camp was located in the Kafia Kingi Enclave. The report titled: “Hidden in Plain Sight” says Kony was last seen there in late 2012 but the camp was occupied until last month.

The report adds that though the camp is now abandoned, Kony remains in neighbouring CAR and could return to Sudan any time.

According to the report, Sudan renewed support to the rebel group and actually harboured them at the camp from October 2009 to at least March 2013.

It cites documents on how Kony’s forces first re-established contact with the Sudanese military in late 2009. LRA fighters then periodically used the area as a safe haven for more than three years, as Ugandan forces, authorised by the African Union, were not allowed access to the area.

Kony himself was first sighted there in 2010 and was reportedly based in the area for significant portions of 2012. The report provides the most definitive documentation to date of Sudan’s renewed ties to the LRA.

It cites interviews with eight LRA defectors who were eyewitnesses to LRA movements into Sudanese-controlled territory, four of whom provided separate accounts of Kony’s presence there.

These testimonies are corroborated by satellite imagery analysis conducted by DigitalGlobe and commissioned by Amnesty International US, as well as independent reports from government and other sources in the region.

The Ugandan army confirmed to Sunday Vision that they knew about Kony’s presence in Sudanese territory. “We knew that the LRA had a camp at Kafia Kingi near a Sudanese army base,” army’s chief political commissar, Felix Kulayigye, said.

“As long as Kony is able to find a safe haven in Sudan, he can avoid pursuit by Ugandan forces by simply crossing the border whenever they get close,” said Michael Poffenberger, executive director of and one of the report’s primary authors.

“Sudan should not be allowed to harbour a notorious war criminals,” he added.

“The LRA’s abandonment of their camp in Sudanese-controlled territory presents an opportunity for Sudan to definitively cut ties to the group,” said Paul Ronan, director of policy and primary author at The Resolve.