2008 – 09 Garamba offensive The 2008 – 2009 Garamba offensive ( codenamed Operation Lightning Thunder ) started on December 14 , 2008 , when joint Uganda n , DR Congo lese and Southern Sudan ese forces launched a military attack against the Lord ' s Resistance Army ( LRA ) in the Garamba region of DR Congo . Background . In June 2008 , after the LRA had attacked and killed 23 people in Southern Sudan , including 14 soldiers , a Ugandan military spokesman said Uganda , DR Congo and Sudan would launch a joint offensive against the LRA if its leader , Joseph Kony , failed to commit to the Juba peace talks . Concurrently , the Southern Sudanese Information Minister , Gabriel Changson , declared that " The LRA have started war " , and that " Southern Sudan will not be the place where they can wage this war " . The same month , diplomats reported that the LRA had acquired new weapons and was forcibly recruiting new soldiers , adding 1 , 000 recruits to the 600 soldiers it already had . An onslaught against the LRA by Ugandan forces in northern Uganda and across the border in Southern Sudan , led the rebels to relocate to the densely forested Garamba National Park in DR Congo – and when they attacked and killed civilians there , the Congolese government vowed to destroy the LRA . The operation . In November 2008 , the U . S . President George W . Bush personally signed the directive to the United States Africa Command to provide assistance financially and logistically to the Ugandan government during the offensive . The United States military helped in the planning stages of the operation , and also provided financial and technical support in the form of satellite phones and fuel . On December 14 , 2008 , a statement announcing the operation was released in the Ugandan capital Kampala by the intelligence chiefs of the armed forces of the three countries : the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo , the Uganda People ' s Defence Force ( UPDF ) and Sudan People ' s Liberation Army ( SPLA ) . " The three armed forces successfully attacked the main body and destroyed the main camp of Joseph Kony , code - named " Camp Swahili " , setting it on fire , " the statement said . The Ugandan government stated on December 21 , 2008 , that 70 % of the LRA ' s camps had been destroyed so far . On December 24 , 2008 Uganda said one of its MiG - 21 fighter aircraft crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo . " The pilot , Bosco Opiyo , failed to recover the plane from diving and plunged into the ground , dying instantly , and the craft also caught fire . The accident is purely a technical accident " , said Ugandan Army spokesman Paddy Ankunda . By early January 2009 , according to a Congolese official , the LRA was routed , had lost most of its food supply , and was on the run and very close to the border of the Central African Republic , which had reinforced troops at the border . However , in late January , in apparent reprisals against the offensive , LRA launched several attacks against civilians , on one occasion killing more than 100 villagers . Ugandan withdrawal . On March 15 , 2009 , Uganda abruptly ended its participation in the offensive and began withdrawing its troops from Garamba . The withdrawal , according to Lt . Gen . Ivan Koreta , the Deputy Chief of Defence Forces , was due to an agreement signed with DR Congo . During a handover ceremony in Garamba , the DR Congo Chief of General Staff , Gen . Didier Etumba Longila , said Congo would continue hunting the LRA until they were neutralised .