LRA: Everyone’s Problem, No One’s Responsibility

LRA: Everyone’s Problem, No One’s Responsibility

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Rumors abound about Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a group that has terrorized northern Uganda for the past 20 years and now is thought to be active in Congo, Sudan and Chad.

Some of them are stock rumors regularly applied to rebel leaders: that he's bullet proof, for instance, or that he speaks with spirits for guidance. And then there are a few more unusual ones: that among his rumored several dozen children with more than several dozen wives, one son is named George Bush, while another is named Salim Saleh, after the famously corrupt half brother of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. He's also rumored to have some kind of shield that hides his GPS coordinates when he uses satellite phones, preventing armed forces from locating and nabbing him in the jungle where he operates.

One reason so many rumors persist is to fill the void left by a paucity of verifiable information. Another reason is to fill the void left by the paucity of the LRA's agenda.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review