LRA abducts more than 200 in C. Africa: rights groups
Source: AFP
Rebels in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have kidnapped more than 200 people this year in the Central African Republic, a quarter of them children, human rights groups said Thursday.
Joseph Kony’s Uganda-born rebel movement, infamous for brutality and also active in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, has abducted 217 people in the CAR since January 1, according to LRA Crisis Tracker, a joint project of the Invisible Children advocacy group and The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative.
“The LRA is once again abducting children in Central Africa, betting that the international community will fail to protect those most vulnerable to Kony’s forces,” said Paul Ronan, director of The Resolve. “So far in 2016, that bet has paid off.”
Those snatched from their homes this year included 54 children, 41 of whom are captives or otherwise unaccounted for, said the new Crisis Tracker report called “The State of the LRA in 2016”.
Read more: https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2016/03/lra-abducts-more-than-200-in-c-africa-rights-groups/
In December, his former bodyguard, George Okot, defected.
The LRA had lost a "large chunk of its fighting force", and seemed to be trying to rebuild its force through abductions, said Sean Poole of the Invisible Children campaign group, which is part of LRA Crisis Tracker.
The spike in abductions in the first three months of this year signalled a "huge change in the modus operandi" of the LRA, he told the BBC's Newsday programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35716385