Obama presents plan to disarm Uganda's LRA rebels

Nov 25, 2010 |

Washington

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President Barack Obama presented Congress with a plan to disarm Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Africa, said the White House.

The strategy responds to a law Mr Obama proposed and Congress passed six months ago to defuse the spiraling bloodshed in central Africa, protect the civilian population and bring LRA leaders to justice.

The plan's four objectives also include promoting "the defection, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters; and. Increase humanitarian access and provide continued relief to affected communities."

"The development of the strategy," the White House said in a statement, "relied on the significant involvement of the Department of State, the Department of Defence, the US Agency for International Development, and the Intelligence Community.

"All will remain engaged throughout implementation," it added.

Long since driven out of Uganda where they first took up arms two decades ago, the LRA rebels have sown terror across a vast region where the borders of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic meet.

They are notorious for kidnapping boys to serve as child soldiers and girls to act as sex slaves.

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