The UN Security Council has urged Sudan and other nations to cooperate in capturing Lord’s Resistance Army commander Joseph Kony, after reports that he may be hiding in Kafia Kinji, a disputed area on Sudan’s southern frontier with South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

LRA leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court on 33 counts of enslavement, murder, mutilation, pillaging, rape and other crimes.

In a presidential statement by the Security Council distributed Monday, the world body called on “all States to cooperate with relevant national governments and the International Criminal Court, in accordance with their respective obligations, in order to execute those warrants, and to bring to justice those responsible.”

The Council statement followed a report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the LRA leader and some of his commanders may have entered the Kafia Kinji territory, which is administered by South Darfur authorities while claimed by Western Bahr al Ghazal.

Ban’s report was presented on Monday to the Council by the outgoing head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), Abou Moussa. He briefed the Council on the report as well as the regional strategy on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Speaking to press after the meeting, Ambassador Peter Wilson, the deputy representative of the UK Mission to the UN, said, “The Lord’s Resistance Army remain an abhorrent menace to peace and security across the region… Our goal now must be a permanent eradication of the threat that they pose.” 

The ambassador urged “all regional governments” to fulfill their “commitments under the AU’s Regional Cooperation Initiative against the LRA and ensuring the AU Regional Task Force is fully operational and conducting patrols in their territory.”

He added, “The United Kingdom also calls on the Sudanese Government to ensure that the Kafia-Kingi enclave does not become a safe haven for the LRA.”

Another current Security Council member, Australia, noted that the LRA has exploited the breakdown of order in Central African Republic: “We are also concerned by reports that senior LRA leaders may be based in north-eastern CAR, and that some ex-Seleka combatants are suspected to be colluding with the LRA.”

“The Secretary-General’s report also cites credible sources suggesting that LRA leader Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders have recently returned to seek safe-haven in the Kafia Kingi enclave between Sudan, South Sudan, and the CAR,” said Ambassador Philippa King, Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations. 

“We know that the LRA will exploit any security vacuum and seize the opportunity to regroup. This is its modus operandi. Since the collapse of state authority in the CAR, LRA attacks in the country’s east have risen sharply, and the group has targeted prefectures outside of the AU-RTF’s principal area of operations,” she added.

In its presidential statement, the Security Council urged peacekeepers in Darfur, South Sudan and Central Africa to share information with the African Union Regional Task Force on the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Related coverage:

LRA leader Joseph Kony hiding in disputed area controlled by Sudan: report (7 May)

To contact Radio Tamazuj with information, use the contact form on our website. To join the discussion, follow us on Facebook.