Khartoum Resumes Support to Joseph Kony

{{A coalition of three American civil society organisations has accused the Sudanese government of resuming assistance to Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, designated by the US government as a terrorist group.}}

An official of the Sudan embassy in Kampala, however, dismissed the allegations as “fabrications”, saying President Omar Bashir’s government is actively involved instead in regional and African Union’s counter-LRA initiatives.

The latest allegations against Sudan are contained in a new joint report that The Resolve, Enough Project and Invisible Children released Friday in which they note that between 2009 and February, this year, Kony lived in Kafia Kingi, a disputed border area with South Sudan presently under Khartoum’s control.

“According to LRA defectors and other sources, the rebel leader Joseph Kony himself first travelled to the Kafia Kingi enclave in 2010.

He returned to Kafia Kingi in 2011 and was present there throughout parts of 2012,” notes the report co-authored by The Resolve’s Executive Director Michael Poffenberger and his policy director Paul Ronan.

The Uganda military last year raised similar unproven allegations, which Khartoum denied.

The new report says military officers and diplomats assigned on counter-LRA mission are aware of Khartoum’s renewed support, but reluctant to speak out openly.

{NMG}