United States doubles military personnel in Central Africa
The White House informed Congress on Tuesday that it plans to more than double the number of United States military personnel in Uganda. The aim is to reinforce ongoing efforts to dismantle the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which operates in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Currently, the U.S. has 130 special operations military advisors in Uganda, who work with the Ugandan military as well as African Union regional forces to help their pursuit of LRA rebel leader, Joseph Kony.
U.S. efforts against Kony
Political activism jumpstarted U.S. involvement in the regional conflict. A successful advocacy campaign, most famously the online film "Kony 2012," shined light on the Lord’s Resistance Army’s atrocities, which include kidnappings, mass killings, rapes and the forced conscription of tens of thousands of child soldiers. The U.S. Congress responded to political pressure with the Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (PDF), enacted May 24, 2010, which calls for the U.S. government to work with regional partners to find a “comprehensive and lasting resolution the conflict [through the provision of] political, economic, military and intelligence support.”
In October 2011, President Barack Obama authorized one hundred military trainers to go to Uganda, with forward operating locations in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic. Military advisors work with Uganda and regional forces of the African Union Regional Task Force (AU-RTF). The mission was called Observant Compass, with the mandate to “remove the threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army from a four-country region.”
According to a new factsheet the State Department released this week, the focus of U.S. counter-LRA efforts to date are fourfold:
- The “increased protection of civilians” through support of United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
- Enhancing regional efforts to apprehend or remove “Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders from the battlefield” through U.S. military advisors who “facilitate coordination, information sharing, and tactical coordination amongst regional forces and enhance the capacity of the regional militaries to fuse intelligence with effective operational planning,” among other tasks.
- The “promotion of defections and support of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters” through an information campaign in the region.
- And finally, “the provision of continued humanitarian relief to affected communities.”
So far, the around one hundred U.S. military personnel have trained Ugandan and African Union counterparts under the African Union-led Regional Cooperation Initiative for the Elimination of the Lord’s Resistance Army (RCI-LRA).
U.S. reinforcement
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told the press that the U.S. is sending “a limited number” of CV-22 Ospreys, a special operations forces aircraft designed for long-range missions in difficult terrain, to Uganda, and the additional 150 U.S. military personnel will operate and maintain the Ospreys. The White House stressed that regional partners – presumably Uganda and the African Union – requested the aircraft as one “of the most-needed capabilities.” The Washington Post reported in October last year that the Pentagon lobbied the White House for Osprey aircraft and the additional personnel.
The additional 150 U.S. special forces will bring U.S. military personnel in the region to 280, and President Obama indicated that the number may fluctuate up to 300 personnel at any time.
Human Rights Concerns
The timing of the U.S. reinforcement is raising concerns among both human rights advocates and security analysts, however. They point to the fact that Uganda has progressively restricted civil liberties -- “locking up journalists, targeting opposition leaders and criminalizing homosexuality.”
In fact, President Obama’s announcement comes just a month after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed a harsh, controversial anti-gay bill. The bill elicited a strong rebuke from the U.S. government: the State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama each spoke out forcefully against the law. President Obama asserted that the bill “will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda.” Secretary Kerry promised an internal review of the relationship with Uganda and U.S. assistance programs.
At the time, human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. government to cut security assistance to Uganda. Instead, the U.S. government opted to cut funds for the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, suspend a survey to estimate the size of at-risk populations for HIV/AIDS that was to be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and shift a military education symposium to another country.
Human Rights Watch’s acting director Sarah Margon expressed disappointment in the United States’ choice to reinforce their security relationship with Uganda:
Who wouldn’t want to get rid of this brutal rebel group? But they’re not a direct threat to Museveni right now, and what he gains by this is continued American support to his military, and legitimacy, just when he signed this law.
Security analysts also expressed surprise. Jennifer G. Cooke, Africa director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted:
The tension between security and human rights is going to dog all of our foreign policy interests, but we should ask: How important is this security relationship? Because Museveni has not been a consistent force for stability in the region.
The State Department responded to these concerns indicating that the recent reinforcements are separate from U.S. concerns with human rights violations: “Ensuring justice and accountability for human rights violators like the L.R.A. and protecting L.G.B.T. rights aren’t mutually exclusive. We can and must do both.”