Rumors have been circulating for a few weeks that elements of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) were taking their looting and horrific terrorist activities from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and south Sudan to Darfur. Major-General Kuol Diem Kuol of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in fact, was unequivocal:
We have confirmed that the LRA are there and they have clashed with the local population…The LRA is in Darfur for two purposes…They are travelling with their families, wives and children, and have taken them there for protection. They are also wanting ammunition and weapons from the [main] Sudan army.
Others were less sure. Rob Crilly appropriately questioned the motivations behind SPLA accusations:
So the evidence comes from rebels who spent 20 years fighting against Khartoum, who are allied with the Darfuri rebels, and who themselves are no strangers to using child soldiers, stealing food aid and targeting civilians in their struggle. Lower down they resurrect their claims that Khartoum is resupplying the LRA.
Concern grew this week when the LRA raided a camp for displaced Darfuris in southern Sudan looking for supplies. Major-General Diem is again the main source quoted in the western press about the raid, as well as a subsequent SPLA mission to free 46 abducted Darfuris. These stories followed a report of clashes with Sudan’s northern army on the South Darfur-Central African Republic border earlier this month. As Skyle Wheeler and Opheera McDoom point out, “[a]ny LRA presence in Darfur would add to the chaotic mix of armed groups roaming the region, terrorising aid and commercial convoys and hundreds of thousands of Darfuris who fled to makeshift camps.”
So what are Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) and others in Khartoum saying about these rumors and reports? Yesterday, an article in Al-Ray Al-Aam (an Arabic-language, NCP-leaning newspaper) said that the Darfuri bloc in parliament reported that there was absolutely no LRA presence in Darfur. This group, whose members all belong to the NCP and therefore would be expected to tow the government line, promised that they would seek more information from the government of South Darfur and then report back to parliament.
More interestingly, there were two op-eds published in Wednesday’s Al-Ray Al-Aam on the issue. Ismail Adam chronicled the LRA’s history and noted that it would be “strange” for the LRA to now go to Darfur. Nevertheless, he said that it was necessary that the SPLM and NCP fight together against this “pandemic.” On the other hand, Rashid Abdel-Raheem argued that the SPLM and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni are working hard to convince the international community of this “illusion.” He blamed Museveni for wanting to distract attention from his failed handling of the LRA and to demonstrate his support for the International Criminal Court (LRA’s leader Joseph Kony has 33 outstanding charges against him). Likewise, Abdel-Raheem blamed the SPLM for wanting to distract attention from its failed policies to protect civilians in the South – as well as its desire to exploit the issue of Darfur for its own political ends. He concluded that the LRA crisis originated in the area between Uganda and south Sudan and the crisis remains there today – and therefore: “the Sudanese people will not be fooled” by the SPLM or Museveni’s claims.
These reactions do not tell us too much more about whether the LRA is or is not in Darfur, but they do tell us a lot about Sudanese politics. As expected, some in the NCP (or connected to it) will find a way to use the disturbing presence of the LRA in south Sudan and rumors of their move to Darfur as a device against their political foes – and some within the SPLM may also be doing the same thing. As with other issues, the simple paradigm is that Khartoum will blame Juba for not handling problems in the South, and Juba will blame Khartoum for being secretly behind these problems. I will keep monitoring the reactions and commentary, as well as any third-party reporting on the issue, to give future updates.
With all that said, this analysis of the politics should not take away from the very real fact that the LRA is without doubt operating in south Sudan – regularly attacking villages and displacing tens of thousands of civilians in 2009 alone.
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