Uganda and the United States have ended a six-year hunt for elusive warlord Joseph Kony and his notorious Lord's Resistance Army. But calling off the mission, focused on Central African Republic, has left the commander of Ugandan forces in the country frustrated and advocacy groups concerned that the failure to "kill or capture" Kony could see the insurgency rebound.

Start the conversation, or Read more at IRIN. </s> Joseph Kony speaks during a meeting with a delegation of 160 officials and lawmakers from northern Uganda in July 2006. KAMPALA - This week, the international manhunt for Joseph Kony came to an undistinguished end.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Washington Post. </s> Libreville — On Wednesday, US special forces begin pulling out of the Central African Republic (CAR) where they were deployed in 2011 to help hunt the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) warlord, Joseph Kony. The move, which was announced last month, will see US troops pulling out of the country’s east where they have been helping Ugandan forces track down the feared LRA’s rebels.

"The time has come to move forward because the organisation itself is really in a survival mode," general Thomas Waldhauser, head of the US military’s Africa Command (Africom) said in a telephone briefing last week.

One of Africa’s longest-surviving rebel groups, the LRA has terrorised parts of central Africa for 30 years. Several years ago it counted several thousand fighters but today has fewer than 100, with the rebels dispersed across parts of CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.

Since it was set up by Kony in 1987, the LRA has slaughtered more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children who were forced to become sex slaves and soldiers, UN figures show.

In 2011, Washington sent in about 100 US troops to eastern CAR to help regional forces hunt down Kony, adding another 150 special forces airmen three years later. But last month, Africom said it would be wrapping up the operation which has cost between $600m and $800m, even though Kony remains at large. "This operation was a significant success," Jeffrey Hawkins, the US envoy to CAR, told France’s RFI radio in early April.

Ugandan troops, who have been in eastern CAR since 2009, are also withdrawing from the area. Last week, the army said the mission to neutralise the LRA had been "successfully achieved" and that Kony "no longer poses any significant threat" to Uganda’s national security.

Although his power is much diminished, Kony — who combines religious mysticism with guerrilla tactics and a grim reputation for kidnapping and mutilation — remains at large. According to Paul Ronan of the US-based advocacy group Invisible Children, which was behind an explosive 2012 video highlighting Kony’s atrocities and calling for his capture, the warlord is believed to be either in Sudan or CAR.

A self-styled prophet, Kony launched his bloody rebellion in a bid to overthrow the Ugandan government and impose a regime based on his own version of the Ten Commandments. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity, where one of his commanders, Dominic Ongwen, is currently on trial. </s> US special forces on Wednesday begin pulling out of Central African Republic where they deployed in 2011 to help hunt the brutal LRA warlord Joseph Kony.

The move, which was announced last month, will see US troops pulling out of the country's east where they have been helping Ugandan forces track down rebels from the feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"The time has come to move forward because the organisation itself is really in a survival mode," General Thomas Waldhauser, head of the US military's Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a telephone briefing last week.

One of Africa's longest-surviving rebel groups, the LRA has terrorised parts of central Africa for 30 years.

Several years ago it counted several thousand fighters but today has fewer than 100, with the rebels dispersed across parts of CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.

Since it was set up by Kony in 1987, the LRA has slaughtered more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children who were forced to become sex slaves and soldiers, UN figures show.

In 2011, Washington sent in around 100 US troops to eastern CAR to help regional forces hunt down Kony, adding another 150 special forces airmen three years later.

But last month, AFRICOM said it would be wrapping up the operation, which has cost between $600 and $800 million, even though Kony remains at large.

"This operation was a significant success," Jeffrey Hawkins, the US envoy to CAR, told France's RFI radio in early April.

Ugandan troops, who have been in eastern CAR since 2009, are also withdrawing from the area.

Last week, the army said the mission to neutralise the LRA had been "successfully achieved" and that Kony "no longer poses any significant threat" to Uganda's national security.

Although his power is much diminished, Kony -- who combines religious mysticism with guerrilla tactics and a grim reputation for kidnapping and mutilation -- remains at large.

According to Paul Ronan of the US-based advocacy group Invisible Children, which was behind an explosive 2012 video highlighting Kony's atrocities and calling for his capture, the warlord is believed to be either in Sudan or CAR.

A self-styled prophet, Kony launched his bloody rebellion in a bid to overthrow the Ugandan government and impose a regime based on his own version of the Ten Commandments.

He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity, where one of his commanders, Dominic Ongwen, is currently on trial.

- 'Why do we care?' -

Earlier this year, questions appeared to arise over the level of US commitment to its various operations in Africa in the form of a set of questions posed by the transition team of incoming president Donald Trump to the State Department.

"The LRA has never attacked US interests, why do we care? Is it worth the huge cash outlays? I hear that even the Ugandans are looking to stop searching for him, since they no longer view him as a threat, so why do we?" said the document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

And last month, AFRICOM's Waldhauser confirmed the operations were drawing to a close, saying there were only about 100 LRA rebels and that the mission had "essentially taken that group off the battlefield."

"Everywhere, in cafes, people are talking about the departure of the Ugandan and American troops," a resident of Obo, a town in CAR's southwest, told AFP by phone.

On April 17, around 6,000 people in the town took to the streets to demand that both sets of troops stay in place until they can be replaced by Central African forces.

Although there are UN peacekeeping forces from its MINUSCA mission in Central Africa, very few of them are present in the east of the country.

"This withdrawal will lead to a renewal of LRA attacks in the southeast," warned Thierry Vircoulon, a specialist on central Africa at IFRI, the French institute for international relations.

"Nobody is under any illusion that the Central African troops which are to be sent there to avoid a security vacuum will be able to neutralise the LRA."

As well as the threat from Kony's militia, the eastern region is also struggling with attacks by other "armed groups", regional police chief Ghislain Dieu-Benit Kolengo told AFP.

He was referring to rebels from the mainly Muslim ex-Seleka militia and from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), a splinter group from a rebel force in neighbouring Chad which rights groups say executed 32 civilians and captive fighters late last year.

"Even though we are officially ending the so-called counter-LRA mission, we are certainly aware of the fact that we don't want to leave a void there," said Waldhauser.

And he said Washington would continue to offer support to African troops in the form of both "training" and "intelligence". </s> US special forces on Wednesday begin pulling out of Central African Republic where they deployed in 2011 to help hunt the brutal LRA warlord Joseph Kony.

The move, which was announced last month, will see US troops pulling out of the country's east where they have been helping Ugandan forces track down rebels from the feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"The time has come to move forward because the organisation itself is really in a survival mode,"General Thomas Waldhauser, head of the US military's Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a telephone briefing last week.

Several years ago it counted several thousand fighters but today has fewer than 100, with the rebels dispersed across parts of CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.

Since it was set up by Kony in 1987, the LRA has slaughtered more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children who were forced to become sex slaves and soldiers, UN figures show.

In 2011, Washington sent in around 100 US troops to eastern CAR to help regional forces hunt down Kony, adding another 150 special forces airmen three years later.

But last month, AFRICOM said it would be wrapping up the operation, which has cost between $600 and $800 million, even though Kony remains at large.

'Significant success'

"This operation was a significant success," Jeffrey Hawkins, the US envoy to CAR, told France's RFI radio in early April.

Ugandan troops, who have been in eastern CAR since 2009, are also withdrawing from the area.

Last week, the army said the mission to neutralise the LRA had been "successfully achieved" and that Kony "no longer poses any significant threat" to Uganda's national security.

Although his power is much diminished, Kony -- who combines religious mysticism with guerrilla tactics and a grim reputation for kidnapping and mutilation -- remains at large.

According to Paul Ronan of the US-based advocacy group Invisible Children, which was behind an explosive 2012 video highlighting Kony's atrocities and calling for his capture, the warlord is believed to be either in Sudan or CAR.

A self-styled prophet, Kony launched his bloody rebellion in a bid to overthrow the Ugandan government and impose a regime based on his own version of the Ten Commandments.

He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity, where one of his commanders, Dominic Ongwen, is currently on trial.

'Why do we care?'

Earlier this year, questions appeared to arise over the level of US commitment to its various operations in Africa in the form of a set of questions posed by the transition team of incoming president Donald Trump to the State Department.

"The LRA has never attacked US interests, why do we care? Is it worth the huge cash outlays? I hear that even the Ugandans are looking to stop searching for him, since they no longer view him as a threat, so why do we?" said the document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

And last month, AFRICOM's Waldhauser confirmed the operations were drawing to a close, saying there were only about 100 LRA rebels and that the mission had "essentially taken that group off the battlefield."

Fears in the east

"Everywhere, in cafes, people are talking about the departure of the Ugandan and American troops," a resident of Obo, a town in CAR's southwest, told AFP by phone.

On April 17, around 6,000 people in the town took to the streets to demand that both sets of troops stay in place until they can be replaced by Central African forces.

Although there are UN peacekeeping forces from its MINUSCA mission in Central Africa, very few of them are present in the east of the country.

"This withdrawal will lead to a renewal of LRA attacks in the southeast," warned Thierry Vircoulon, a specialist on central Africa at IFRI, the French institute for international relations.

"Nobody is under any illusion that the Central African troops which are to be sent there to avoid a security vacuum will be able to neutralise the LRA."

As well as the threat from Kony's militia, the eastern region is also struggling with attacks by other "armed groups", regional police chief Ghislain Dieu-Benit Kolengo told AFP.

He was referring to rebels from the mainly Muslim ex-Seleka militia and from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), a splinter group from a rebel force in neighbouring Chad which rights groups say executed 32 civilians and captive fighters late last year.

"Even though we are officially ending the so-called counter-LRA mission, we are certainly aware of the fact that we don't want to leave a void there," said Waldhauser.

And he said Washington would continue to offer support to African troops in the form of both "training" and "intelligence". </s> Congolese authorities have arrested two people suspected of involvement in the murder of two U.N. workers in central Democratic Republic of Congo, but one of the prisoners has escaped, a senior prosecutor said Friday.

The announcement was the first reported sign of progress in an inquiry into the deaths of American Michael Sharp and Swede Zaida Catalan, investigators monitoring U.N. Security Council sanctions against individuals and armed groups in Congo.

Their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave on March 27, two weeks after they disappeared in the remote and sparsely populated Kasai-Central province.

Their Congolese interpreter and three Congolese motorbike drivers who accompanied them have not been found, according to the United Nations.

General Joseph Ponde, the army's top prosecutor, did not say when the two suspects were arrested, but said the remaining one had been transferred between facilities on April 4 — meaning the operation must have happened more than a week ago.

He referred to the one suspect in custody, Daniel Mbayi Kabasele, as an "insurgent," without offering further detail or suggesting a motive.

Four police officers responsible for guarding the suspects had been arrested following the escape, he told journalists.

The U.N. mission in Congo had no immediate comment.

Millions died in regional conflicts in eastern Congo between 1996-2003, most from hunger and disease, and dozens of armed groups continue to fight over natural resources and prey on the civilian population.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than one million displaced since last August in central Congo's Kasai region due to fighting between a local militia and security forces. The United Nations has identified at least 23 mass graves.

Meanwhile, Congo has suspended its military cooperation with former colonial power Belgium in protest against criticism last week by Belgium's foreign minister of President Joseph Kabila's selection of a new prime minister, defense minister Crispin Atama Tabe told Reuters on Friday.

The move underlines growing tensions between Congo and international powers, who are pushing for an election by the end of the year to replace Kabila after he refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December.

Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders said the nomination of Bruno Tshibala violated the spirit of a December deal with the opposition to form an interim power-sharing government.

Belgian defense ministry spokeswoman Laurence Mortier confirmed that Congo had informed Belgium of its intention to end the cooperation, which included around 30 Belgian military trainers in Congo who may be withdrawn as a result. </s> The bodies of an American and a Swedish investigator for the United Nations were found in a shallow grave in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than two weeks after they disappeared, the U.N. confirmed Tuesday.

American Michael Sharp and Swede Zaida Catalan were members of a U.N. Group of Experts investigating violence and alleged human rights violations by the Congolese army and local militia groups in the Central Kasai province. Sharp, Zaida, their Congolese interpreter Bete Tshintela, and their three local drivers all went missing March 12 while working in the region.

Congo's police inspector general, Charles Bisengimana, said the bodies were found Monday between the cities of Tshimbulu and Kananga, the provincial capital.

The U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed their deaths in a statement released Tuesday evening, offering his condolences to their families. In the statement, Guterres promised an inquiry into the cause of their deaths and asked the Congolese authorities to "conduct a full investigation into this incident." He urged the local authorities to continue searching for the four Congolese nationals who are still missing.

"Michael and Zaida lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity in the DRC in order to help bring peace to the country and its people," Guterres said in the statement. "We will honor their memory by continuing to support the invaluable work of the Group of Experts and the whole UN family in the DRC."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley also praised Sharp's professionalism.

"Michael was working on the front lines of what we try to do at the United Nations every day: find problems and fix them," Haley said in a statement. "He selflessly put himself in harm's way to try to make a difference in the lives of the Congolese people."

Sharp, 34, was the middle child of two sisters from Kansas. His father, John Sharp, told NBC News that an "unidentified militia group" was responsible for his kidnapping when he first learned his son went missing.

His father said his son was dedicated to doing humanitarian work in eastern Congo even before he joined the United Nations.

"It's really odd that some people think that violence is the answer to the problem, it's illogical," Sharp told NBC News. </s> The United States has issued a travel warning against visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the bodies of two missing UN researchers and their translator were found lying in a shallow grave.

Michael Sharp, a 34-year-old from Kansas, and Zaida Catalan, 36, from Sweden, went missing on March 12, having set out to investigate mass graves in the Kasai province.

On Monday their bodies were found in a shallow grave, along with that of Bete Tshintela.

On Wednesday the state department updated its previous advice, and now recommends that all US citizens avoid unnecessary travel to the DRC. </s> Antananarivo. Controversial moves to extend Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s stay in power appeared to advance Sunday as a close ally said elections would not be held until April 2018, 16 months after Kabila was due to leave office.

Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda also warned that the political opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has urged Kabila to step down on December 20 when his term officially ends, could foment violent.

Tshibanda, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Madagascar, said that Kabila’s government had “consulted election experts” from Congo, the United Nations and elsewhere, and that “it has been decided that the voter registration operation will end on July 31, 2017. (AFP)
The United States announced it will end a six-year Central-African hunt for Joseph Kony the following day.