In my first memo I would like to find answers on two questions related to the Kony
2012 document and the situation of child soldiers in Africa. My questions are:
1) Has Joseph Kony, after the heavy campaign and international support, been
already apprehended and is the Lord’s Resistance Army still active?
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was found in 1987 in northern Uganda and
remained there until 2006 when the whole group left the country (Bareebe, Titeca,
Verpoorten 2012: 142). However, it was already in 1994 when the majority of the
Lord’s Resistance Army, including Kony, changed its location from Uganda to today’s
South Sudan where the group received munificent support from the government (LRA
Crisis Tracker).
In March 2006 Kony and the whole unit moved to the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC) where they stayed for 2 years. During that time they camped in
Garamba National Park and in May he also allowed BBC reporters to enter his camp
and make an interview with him. He was also willing to engage in peace negotiations
with Ugandan government which were mediated by the government of South Sudan.
However, the peace talks failed and at the end of 2008 Ugandan army attacked the
base of the Lord’s Resistance Army. However, the plan to capture Kony failed and in
2009 he fled to the Central African Republic (CAR) (LRA Crisis Tracker).
After few again unsuccessful attacks of Ugandan troops, Kony decided to
move back into Congo, however he stayed there only for few weeks and then changed
the location again (LRA Crisis Tracker). In 2010, Kony moved into Kafia Kingi
enclave which is a disputed area located on the border between South Sudan and
Sudan (Enough 2013). Throughout 2011 and 2012 he was changing the locations of
his stay quite frequently, he was spotted again in Congo and the Central African
Republic (LRA Crisis Tracker).
At the end of 2012, Kony moved back into Kafia Kingi where he probably
stayed at least till early 2013 (LRA Crisis Tracker). Some sources indicated that the
warlord could be staying in the Central African Republic (Human Rights Watch). The
location of his contemporary stay is unknown.
So far Joseph Kony has not been apprehended. Even despite the rapid decrease
in the number of fighters of the Lord’s Resistance Army increased (in 2008 the group
had about 800 troops, 7 years later it was only around 200 (GlobalSecurity.org c2000-
2017)) and the apprehension of Dominic Ongwen, former commander of LRA, in
2015 (International Criminal Court 2016), the group is still active which can be
confirmed by recent actions committed allegedly by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
From the beginning of 2017 there have been 18 incidents which included lootings and
abductions od 77 civilians (LRA Crisis Tracker).
2) How is the situation with child soldiers in Africa right now?
First I would like to define what „child soldier“ actually means. According to
UNICEF, child soldier (in the terminology of UNICEF „ child associated with an
armed force or armed group“) „refers to any person below 18 years of age who is or
who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity,
including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters,
messengers, spies or for sexual purposes, and it does not only refer to a child who is
taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities“ (2007: 7).
Concerning the international law, several conventions related to children
associated with an armed force or a group have been adopted. The first one, which „set
the minimum age for recruitment and use of child soldiers in international and internal
armed conflict at 15 years“ (de Villiers 2015), was implemented in 1977. The
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) delt with the same issue. In 2002,
Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict was introduced and it shifted the
minimum age for recruitment to the age of 18 and also stated that only states were
allowed to recruit. In the same year the Rome Statute, which established the
International Criminal Court, came into force. Under the statute the conscription of
children younger than 15 during international conflicts or their direct participation in
warfare was declared as a war crime (de Villiers 2015).
Regarding Africa and the issue of child soldiers, the African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child came into force in 1999 (World Health Organization
c2017). Among many other things, it is written there that „no child (every human
being below the age of 18 years) shall take a direct part in hostilities and refrain in
particular, from recruiting any child“ (African Commission on Human and Peoples'
Rights c2017). However, this charter has not been signed by the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan and not ratified by the Central African Republic
(African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights c2017).
Concerning the number of the so-called child soldiers in Africa, it is not really
known, however it is estimated that around 120 000 children (40% of child soldiers in
total) are used for fighting and other support operations (Rakisits 2009). In the latest
United Nations’ report related to children and armed conflicts it was written that in
2015 there were 29 parties in seven African countries using child soldiers. These
countries were Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Mali, the Central African
Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (de Villiers 2015).
In CAR there were 464 cases of recruitment and 34 cases of abductions in the
first half of 2015, in DRC 241 cases of recruitment and 108 cases of abductions, in
South Sudan 81 children were recruited and 34 children were abducted, and in Sudan
there were 66 cases of recruitment and 17 cases of abduction (United Nations 2015: 8,
10-11, 27-29, 31).
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