Profile for Joseph Kony ⦁ Born in August 1961 in the hamlet of Odek in Northern Central Uganda. ⦁ Son of farmer Luizi Kony and mother Nora Obol. ⦁ Joseph was a Catholic alter boy as a child. ⦁ His father was a catechist teacher in the Catholic church. ⦁ As a child he had a bad temper and was quick to use violence and revenge. ⦁ He dropped out of school at age 15 years and was said to be a brilliant dancer and loved football. ⦁ His older brother Jamie was the village witch doctor and taught Joseph the art of doctoring. Kony took over when his brother passed away. ⦁ Kony got the idea for his LRA from his cousin Alice Lakwena, a former prostitute and leader of the former holy spirit movement and rebel and warlord Yoweri Musevini and his National Resistance Army. ⦁ In 1987 Kony delcares himself a prophet, an agent of god, spirit medium and creates the Lord's Resistance Army. ⦁ He claims he has divine protection and is immune from death by bullets. ⦁ He claims his closest advisors are angels who he is in communication with. ⦁ There are eight angels. Three American angels, two Sudanese, two Chinese and one Congolese. ⦁ The LRA becomes a peculiar mix of militia, religious movement and brutal cult that begins a battle to overthrow the Uganda government with him as the leader of a Catholic theocratic state based on his version of the ten commandments. ⦁ Without any significant public support Kony orders his followers to attack villages and towns pillaging, raping women and young girls and forcing children to become soldiers in the LRA. ⦁ Kony, who has been called the "butcher of Uganda" is said to have kidnapped over 70,000 children taking them into the bush where they are drugged and indoctrinated. ⦁ Prior to their abduction boys are forced to kill their parents so they will have nothing to return to should they try to escape. ⦁ Women and girls are raped or forced to marry LRA soldiers. ⦁ Victims of the LRA soldiers have been mutilated having their ears, nose, lips and fingers severed with a razor blade. Kony denies the charges as propoganda or the work of NRA soldiers who blame the LRA. ⦁ Many of his victims will have trauma that will past a lifetime. ⦁ The LRA has executed 100,000 civilians and displaced more than 2 million since the rebellion began. ⦁ The LRA, under direct orders from Kony severed the penis and testicles of dead victims dead or dying and brought them back to camp in a bucket. ⦁ In 1994, Kony and the LRA left Uganda and the criminal gang retreated to Sudan. ⦁ For the next ten years Kony recieved food, medicine, automatic rifles, anti-aircraft guns and RPG's from the northern government in Khartoum who was in a civil war with southern Sudan. ⦁ In 2005, North and South Sudan signed a peace agreement. Kony lost all financial backing and fled to the regions surrounding Gambia National Park. ⦁ Kony's band of followers has declined from a peak of 2700 combatants in 1999 to an estimated 150 to 250 core fighters. ⦁ The LRA is still active and a threat. They emerge from the bush and attack villages, abduct new recruits and have poached thousands of elephants so their ivory tusks can be sold on the black market. ⦁ In 2005, the ICC, International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant against Kony and charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity. ⦁ In 2008, the African Union designated the LRA as a terrorist organization. ⦁ In 2008, the Ugandan military attacked Kony's Garamba camps with an airstrike dubbed "Operation Lightning Thunder" that included support from the DRC, southern Sudan and the United States. The mission failed to rout and kill Kony and the LRA. ⦁ In 2008, the United States Treasury Department placed Kony on it's list of "special designated terrorists," that carries financial and other penalties. ⦁ Between 2009 and 2014, the USA has sent 100 soldiers to the region to act as consultants. ⦁ In May 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. This legislation is aimed at stopping Kony and the LRA. ⦁ In 2013, Washington D.C. and the Pentagon sent 4 transporters and 150 soldiers from a special air force team who were not successful in finding Kony and the LRA due to the dense and vast bush and jungle. ⦁ In 2013, the United States Government offered a $5 million dollar bounty for information leading to the arrest of Joesph Kony. ⦁ In January 2015, Kony's brigade commander Dominic Ongwen surrendered to U.S. special forces in the region helping to hunt for Kony and will appear before the ICC and is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. ⦁ Many of the LRA soldiers have accepted an amnesty deal from the Unganda Government if they lay down their weapons and return home. ⦁ Amanda Dory, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense of Africa says that all intelligence leads that will help find Kony and the LRA are pursued and investigated to the best of our abilitities. ⦁ United States Representative Edward R. Royce (R) from California and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee states that for 30 years Joesph Kony has been creating mayhem and some of the worst atrocities on the continent. Now is the time to double down and see the counter LRA mission to the end. ⦁ Kony is or has sent out a squad to try an forge a partnership with the Islamist militant group in Nigeria called Boco Haram that was recently designated as the world's deadliest terrorist organizations. They have launched attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. ⦁ Uganda Minister Betty Bigombe is one of many African leaders who have tried and failed to talk Kony into making peace.