LRA

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a militant new religious movement cult operating in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. It has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, child-sex slavery and forcing children to participate in hostilities.

Initially it was an outgrowth and continuation of the larger armed resistance movement waged by some of the Acholi people against a central Ugandan government which they felt marginalized them in favor of southern Ugandan ethnic groups. Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of African mysticism, Acholi nationalism, Christian fundamentalism, and Islam. It claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.

The group is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesman of God and a spirit medium. Since 1987, Kony is believed to have recruited between 60,000 and 100,000 child soldiers and displaced around 2 million people throughout central Africa. The LRA is one of the foreign organizations designated as terrorist by the United States, and its leadership is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.