Lords Resistance Army
| Lord's Resistance Army | |
|---|---|
| Participant in | |
Flag of the Lord's Resistance Army
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| Active | 1987–present |
| Leaders |
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| Headquarters | Believed to be South Sudan or Central African Republic (2014) |
| Area of operations | |
| Strength |
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| Originated as | |
| Opponents |
 Uganda People's Defence Force Sudan People's Liberation Army D.R. Congo Armed Forces Central African Armed Forces United Nations Peacekeepers United States Army
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The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian cult which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Originally known as the United Holy Salvation Army and Uganda Christian Army/Movement, its stated goals include establishment of multi-party democracy,ruling Uganda according to the Ten Commandments, and Acholi nationalism, though in practice "the LRA is not motivated by any identifiable political agenda, and its military strategy and tactics reflect this". It appears to largely function as a personality cult of its leader Joseph Kony, a self-declared prophet whose leadership has earned him the nickname "Africa's David Koresh".
The LRA was listed as a terrorist group by the United States, though it has since been removed from the list of designated active terrorist groups. It has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, child-sex slavery, and forcing children to participate in hostilities.
Bantu-speaking agriculturists such as the Baganda people in Uganda's south and east developed different and competing social and economic structures from the Nilotic language speaking Acholi in the north, whose economic system was centred around hunting, farming and livestock herding. The ethnic and cultural divisions within Uganda continued to exist during the years of the British Uganda Protectorate, which was created in 1894. While the agricultural Baganda people worked closely with the British, the Acholi and other northern ethnic groups supplied much of the national manual labour, and came to comprise a majority of the military. The southern region became the centre for commercial trade development. The livestock-raising Acholi from the north of Uganda were resented for dominating the army and policing. Following the country's independence in 1962, Uganda's ethnic groups continued to compete with each other within the bounds of Uganda's new political system.
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