Uganda: US help against rebels overdue

The new US military assistance against violent armed group is welcomed, but for many, it came too late.

Uganda pkg

Uganda’s foreign minister has welcomed the deployment of US troops to help the country battle Lord’s Resistance Army rebels [LRA], but said the contingent of 100 combat-ready advisors was “well overdue”.

The LRA is one of the most violent armed groups in Central Africa and its leader Joseph Kony is wanted for crimes against humanity.

Kony has successfully evaded capture for over two decades.

The new US military assistance is welcomed, but for many, it came too late.

Henry Okello Oryem, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, said: “We’re delighted by the announcement by President Obama, but you will appreciate that we wished that what is happening now had happened twenty years ago.

“That would have saved the lives, the misery of the hundreds of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of children who were abducted, and others who were killed by the LRA.”

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Kampala, Uganda.

Source: Al Jazeera