|
| “ | I am a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. | „ |
| ~ Kony in a rare interview with Journeyman Pictures. |
Joseph Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan guerrilla group. While initially enjoying strong public support, the LRA turned brutally on its own supporters, supposedly to "purify" the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy. Kony proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the group believes can represent itself in many manifestations. Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of of mysticism, Acholi nationalism, and Christian fundamentalism, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.
He ordered the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and child soldiers for girls and boys respectively. An estimated 66,000 children became soldiers and two million people have been internally displaced since 1986. In 2005, Kony was indicted for multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, but has evaded capture, and as of 2019 is still at large.
Kony himself is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Central African Republic or South Sudan. With their leader in hiding, the LRA's numbers have decreased to just around 100 fighters and no longer have any presence in Uganda. For this reason, Kony and his organization are longer considered a significant threat, and thus both the United States and Uganda have ended their search for him.
|
The days are gone forever when our enemies could blackmail us with nuclear bombs. This article is a stub and is in need of expansion. You can help Real-Life Villains by expanding it. |