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In Pictures: Uganda’s army hunts down Kony

In one of the world’s hardest to reach locations, the Ugandan army conducts search and attack missions against the LRA.

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A UPDF soldier checks weapons seized from LRA fighters during an operation.
By Michele Sibiloni
Published On 4 Jul 2014

Obo, Central African Republic – In this remote village near the African pole of inaccessibility – a geographic point marking the continent’s farthest distance from the coastline – the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) has been hunting down soldiers attached to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA became notorious for mutilating people and for abducting thousands of children to be used as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. The International Criminal Court indicted Kony on war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2005, but he remains on the run. Ugandan troops now hunt for the LRA in the Central African Republic, where they fled in 2009.

Four years later, in 2013, a separate rebellion overthrew the Central African Government in the capital Bangui. Since the government’s fall, thousands of people have been killed by sectarian militia fighters. The Ugandan army operates in the country’s sparsely populated, rural and underdeveloped eastern area, where it tries to find LRA units hiding in the dense, impenetrable jungle. 

The Ugandan army says that there are about 300 LRA members left, including fighters, abducted woman claimed as “wives”, and their children. Ugandan troops gather intelligence from villagers and pursue the LRA units. Meanwhile, the United Nations says Joseph Kony is hiding hundreds of kilometres away, in a disputed enclave that lies between South Sudan and CAR, but is controlled by Sudan.

UPDF soldiers gather for early morning roll call at the military base in Obo, the capital city of Haut-Mbomou. Obo also resides near the African pole of inaccessibility, a geograhic location that is the continent(***)s farthest point from the ocean.
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UPDF soldiers prepare inside a helicopter before they take part in an operation against the LRA.
A UPDF officer welcomes a senior LRA officer who surrendered with two women, two fighters and a boy. This is the third senior LRA commander to give himself up.
A map shows UPDF camps in the northeastern region of the Central Africa Republic. Northeast CAR is covered in a thick jungle that(***)s difficult to traverse.
A UPDF soldier sits inside a helicopter that takes him to Nzako, a small northeastern town for an operation against the LRA.
An aerial view of the thick jungle in the northeast region of CAR where the UPDF hunts LRA members.
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UPDF soldiers patrol near the village of Nzaco. The "bush", as the dense jungle is called, makes it extremely difficult to search out LRA members.
UPDF soldiers offer villagers their only protection against the LRA.
UPDF and local authorities discuss security in Zemio, a refugee camp in southeastern CAR, where the army hopes to prevent rebel attacks.
Children play at the refugee camp in Zemio in southeast CAR.
UPDF soldiers regularly patrol the streets of Zemio.
UPDF soldiers unload supplies in Nzaco.