Washington, DC — President Obama has re-authorized U.S. support for the African Union-led counter-LRA mission, Operation Observant Compass, for one additional year starting now.
Over the past 28 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted over 66,000 youth as child soldiers and sex slaves, and 200,000 people in central Africa remain displaced because of LRA attacks today.
Sasha Lezhnev, Associate Director of Policy at the Enough Project, said: "The counter-LRA mission is working, and President Obama has committed to finish the job. The African Union-U.S. mission to end Joseph Kony's LRA has already led to a 90% reduction in killings over the past four years. However, Kony himself remains at large, hiding in Sudan-held territory, and the LRA is getting new ammunition from poaching elephants and selling ivory. President Obama showed resolve in re-authorizing the mission today, and it's now up to the U.S. military advisors and the African Union forces to interdict the LRA's illegal ivory trade and find Kony."
On Monday, the Enough Project will publish a new report, with fresh field research on the state of the LRA and its elephant poaching and ivory trafficking operations.
For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact:
Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717 0606, [email protected]
About THE ENOUGH PROJECT
The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org