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A mercenary air force that became a symbol of the U.S. occupation of Iraq is back in action—this time in Central Africa, supporting a shadowy American U.S. Special Forces commando operation targeting the Lord’s Resistance Army. In late January, a source on the ground in Central African Republic spotted a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter with the registry number N408RC carrying American Special Forces troops. The LRA, a cultish band of thieves and rapists led by warlord Joseph Kony, is most active in the forested region where Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet. In 2010, President...

Suspected dissidents disappear after midnight visits to their homes; chilling screams can again be heard from Idi Amin's infamous torture chambers, reopened after a quarter of a century of disuse. From the few that escape come tales of punishment beatings and even mass executions. Welcome to President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda. One of Britain's favourite African states in recent years has, almost unnoticed in the West, become a sinister land where a corrupt regime uses its secret police to rule through fear. The reasons for this transition are not hard to fathom. Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, when his...

Kidnap me, says Uganda leader Children are often abducted by the LRA President Yoweri Museveni has dared Uganda's rebels to abduct him rather than civilians after he moved to the central town of Soroti to direct the army campaign. He was speaking after the army accused the Lord's Resistance Army of killing 13 children whom they had abducted. However, the LRA staged an ambush 30km from Soroti a day after Mr Museveni's arrival on Saturday, killing five people and abducting 10 more. The LRA has been fighting since the late 1980s to replace President Yoweri Museveni's secular government in a...

“Maybe we can reach a point of reconsideration” on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Kerry said during a forum at the State Department. The Ugandan president committed to meeting with American “experts” on homosexuality to try to change his mind about the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday during a forum at the State Department moderated by BuzzFeed. Museveni claimed to have signed the law, which imposes up to a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality, after being convinced no one is “born gay.” “I talked personally to President Museveni just a few...

People talk a lot about Islamic extremism and ISIS/ISIL (the guys who behead Christians, among others), but what about Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army? "I don't remember people talking about that as much anymore, but that's a Christian militant group," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday. She was making the point that terrorism "is not just a threat in one place" -- and it's not just Islamic: "If you look at the Lord's Resistance Army and Kony, Joseph Kony -- I don't remember people talking about that as much anymore, but that's a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending military aircraft and more special operations forces to Uganda to assist in the search for fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony. A senior U.S. military official confirmed Monday that the U.S. is sending at least four CV-22 Osprey aircraft about about 150 more Air Force special operations members and airmen to assist local forces in their long-running battle against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. The official confirmed the plans, first reported by The Washington Post, on condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss them on the record.

<p>President Obama is committing more military resources, including aircraft and special operations forces, to the hunt for notorious African warlord Joseph Kony.</p> <p>Early Monday, the White House confirmed a Washington Post report that the U.S. was sending "associated support personnel," and a "limited number" of CV-22 Osprey aircraft to assist local forces in their long-running battle against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. Obama sent about 100 U.S. troops to help the African forces in 2011.</p>

(Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic seized the riverside capital Bangui in fierce fighting on Sunday, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee and sowing confusion over who ruled the mineral-rich heart of Africa. At least nine South African soldiers were killed trying to prevent the rebels taking Bangui, a Reuters witness said, dealing a blow to Pretoria's attempt to stabilize the chaotic central African nation and assert its influence in the region. ... "The looting is bad. Both the population and Seleka are involved," said one senior U.N. official in Bangui. "We are not sure who is in charge....

Military Pact With Niger Brings American Forces Closer to Conflict in Mali. The U.S. signed an agreement Monday with the West African country of Niger that clears the way for a stepped-up American military presence on the edges of the conflict in neighboring Mali. The U.S. and France are moving to create an intelligence hub in Niger that could include a base, near Mali's border, for American drones that could monitor al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali's vast desert north, U.S. officials said. The moves show the extent to which the U.S. and France are girding for what could be an...

One of the co-founders of Invisible Children, the San Diego-based charity which is campaigning for the arrest of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has been hospitalised after police said he was detained for being naked and masturbating in public. Jason Russell, 33, was picked up by police in San Diego at around 11.30am on Thursday after receiving numerous calls from the public about a man vandalising cars, being apparently under the influence of a substance and making sexual gestures while wearing only his underwear. According to local TV station NBC, San Diego police spokeswoman Lieutenant Andra Brown told a press conference...

The chief executive of a group that produced a wildly popular video about African warlord Joseph Kony answered critics Monday, defending its tactics and spending practices. "I understand why a lot of people are wondering, 'Is this just some slick, kind of fly-by-night, slacktivist thing?' when actually it's not at all," said Ben Keesey of Invisible Children. "It's connected to a really deep, thoughtful, very intentional and strategic campaign." In an online video that runs more than eight minutes, Keesey acknowledges the sting of criticism since Invisible Children released the video "Kony 2012" last week, becoming an Internet sensation with...

He's like a phantom. Of course, thousands have seen him, tens of thousands have died because of him, and hundreds of thousands have suffered thanks to him and his supporters. But the people on his trail haven't been able to catch him. The man is 49-year-old Joseph Kony, the self-appointed general of God, guerrilla fighter and mass murderer. For more than two decades, he and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have terrorized people living in an area of roughly 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles) of jungle in Uganda, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

Kampala - Ugandan and US military officials are confident the end is nigh for the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group that has been avoiding head-on battles for over a quarter of a century while leaving carnage in its wake. The two countries have teamed up to tackle the LRA, a rebel movement that originated in Uganda during the country's civil war in the 1980s. After suffering defeats in Uganda in recent years, remaining LRA forces have moved into the poor and often dysfunctional Central African Republic (CAR), still carrying out attacks that often employ a scorched earth policy,...

BANGUI — US special forces have set up a base in the Central African Republic as part of their regional hunt for fighters from the Ugandan-born Lord's Resistance Army group, military sources said Monday. "The deployment of this contingent, the size of which is unknown, was carried out very discreetly with Ugandan military aircraft," a Central African military official said on condition of anonymity. The US elite troops set up a base in Obo and are expected to coordinate their efforts with local government forces and Ugandan soldiers. US President Barack Obama in October announced he was sending 100 special...

SECURITY: US advisers limited to "support" role in tracking down LRA NEW YORK, 22 November 2011 (IRIN) - The main stated aim of the US deployment of 100 military advisers to central Africa is to improve coordination among the armies of countries affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to avoid repeating the fiasco of the 2008 multinational offensive against the group. They “are not directly involved in the operation to find members of the Lord's Resistance Army”, said Major James Rawlinson of the US Special Operations Command, Africa, in a statement to IRIN. While they will be “working and...

BANGUI — US military personnel deployed to help track down Lord's Resistance Army rebels have met officials in the Central African Republic to co-ordinate an impending operation, a source told AFP Thursday. The military source said that six US special forces troops met with local leaders at Obo, near the border with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the LRA are believed to be roaming through the region's sparce, thinly populated forests. US President Barack Obama in October announced that he was sending about 100 troops to train and advice the African forces looking for the remnants...

For almost two decades, Joseph Kony, senior commander of the Ugandan rebel Lords Resistance Army, has practiced a peculiarly evil brand of the sociopathic warfare that curses central Africa. Listing the horrors committed by Kony and his thugs numbs the mind, but also substantiates the case for dispatching U.S. special operations soldiers to help Ugandan forces combat the killers. The very public deployment of such a small but technically capable U.S. force also sends a diplomatic signal. There are bad actors in central and east Africa who benefit from violent instability throughout the region -- bad actors who encourage and...

When President Obama announced the deployment of 100 U.S. military advisers to aid in the pursuit of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), reaction was swift. Michele Bachmann criticized "unnecessary foreign entanglements," while admitting, "I do not know enough about it to comment on it." Rush Limbaugh called the LRA "Christians" and accused Obama of sending American troops "to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda," before promising to do some "research on it." In both cases, it is remarkable that public figures feel no hesitance -- no internal check of propriety or shame -- about offering opinions while...

After President Barack Obama announced earlier this week that he would be sending American troops into Uganda, WND uncovered billionaire activist George Soros' ties both to the political pressure behind the decision and to the African nation's fledgling oil industry. Soros sits on the executive board of an influential "crisis management organization" that recently recommended the U.S. deploy a special advisory military team to Uganda to help with operations and run an intelligence platform, a recommendation Obama's action seems to fulfill. The president emeritus of that organization, the International Crisis Group, is also the principal author of "Responsibility to Protect,"...

Why is the U.S. sending its troops to finish off a fractured band of bush fighters in the middle of Africa? Political payback for the quiet sacrifices of Uganda's troops in Somalia could be one reason, experts say. President Barack Obama announced Friday he is dispatching about 100 U.S. troops — mostly special operations forces — to central Africa to advise in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA is a guerrilla group accused of widespread atrocities across several countries. The first U.S. troops arrived Wednesday. Long considered one of Africa's most brutal rebel groups, the Lord's Resistance...