OVERVIEW

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is an armed group that has committed human rights atrocities against communities in Central Africa for almost 30 years. Joseph Kony formed the LRA in 1986 as a Ugandan political rebellion, but the group soon began to carry out massacres, sexual-based violence, mutilations, pillage, and abductions. Kony also gained notoriety for his use of child soldiers and slaves. In 2006, the LRA was pushed out of Uganda, but scattered groups continue to operate in the ungoverned border regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), and the Sudans.

To help protect local populations from LRA atrocities, USAID invests significant resources in CAR, the DRC, and Uganda. USAID’s programs directly support the U.S. Government’s strategy to mitigate and eliminate the threat to civilians posed by the LRA.

PROGRAMS

USAID has supported LRA-affected communities since the 1980s and scaled up its activities in 2010 after President Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. With this law, the U.S. Government began a comprehensive inter-agency effort to provide development, humanitarian, diplomatic, and military support to regional partners seeking to end the threat posed by the LRA. Since 2010, the LRA has committed fewer large-scale atrocities, but continues to commit violent acts against local communities on a regular basis. 

In recent years, LRA attacks have targeted isolated communities in remote areas of southeast CAR and northeast DRC. USAID’s Secure, Empowered, Connected Communities activity, implemented by Catholic Relief Services, strengthens the ability of these communities to anticipate and respond to threats. Through the program’s early warning system, for example, communities use high frequency radios and other technologies to report LRA activities and exchange critical information enabling them to reduce their exposure to attack. The program also empowers communities to organize their own protection plans and provides trauma-healing support for survivors of LRA attacks.

In Northern Uganda, many communities continue to struggle with the impacts of past LRA attacks. The USAID Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace program, implemented by the National Center for State Courts, strengthens local capacity to mitigate land conflicts and build peace in LRA-affected areas. USAID programming also provides psychosocial and livelihoods support to ex-LRA captives seeking to reintegrate into host communities.

To respond to the immediate needs of communities impacted by violence and displacement in LRA-affected areas, USAID provides humanitarian assistance to address acute needs and promote early recovery in the aftermath of attacks. USAID provides health services, protection, logistics and relief commodities, humanitarian coordination, and small-scale livelihood and food security activities. This programming helps families to reclaim their livelihoods and deters voluntary recruitment into armed groups by providing viable economic alternatives. Additionally, USAID contributes food vouchers and cash assistance to the World Food Program to assist displaced persons in eastern DRC and CAR, while supporting UNICEF’s efforts in eastern DRC to mitigate and respond to violence against children.

USAID is currently developing new awards to further strengthen protections for LRA-affected communities, building upon lessons learned from years of counter-LRA programming experience. USAID programs will address emerging issues by supporting LRA-affected populations who face trauma and stigmatization as they seek to rebuild their lives; combating ivory trafficking and other activities that finance armed groups; and resolving tensions that have arisen between LRA-affected communities due to the pressures of chronic insecurity, especially between agriculturalists and pastoralists.

RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Reached over 281,000 beneficiaries in CAR and DRC.
• Formed 94 community protection committees (32 in CAR, 62 in DRC) that help local populations mitigate the impacts of attacks.
• Operated high-frequency radios in 38 communities in CAR and 62 communities in DRC using solar panels to expand dissemination of information on LRA attacks and improve connectivity between villages and communities.
• Broadcast peace and reconciliation messaging through 12 frequency modulation (FM) radio stations (6 in CAR, 6 in DRC). These radio programs sensitize community members on important issues for conflict mitigation such as women’s empowerment and gender-based violence, reintegration of LRA survivors, and encouragement of LRA defections.
• Held more than 123 trauma healing workshops in the DRC and CAR.
• Trained 538 volunteer conflict monitors across Northern Uganda.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES and Implementing partners

Secure, Empowered, Connected Communities (SECC)

Catholic Relief Services

Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace (SAFE)

National Center for State Courts