Group: Sudan army supporting fugitive warlord Kony

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony recently found safe haven in territory controlled by Sudan, a watchdog group said Friday, accusing the Sudanese military of offering aid to commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army.

The U.S.-based group Resolve said in a new report that Kony recently directed killings from an enclave protected by the Sudanese military. Until early this year, according to the report, Kony and some of his commanders were operating in Kafia Kingi, a disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border where African Union troops tasked with catching Kony don't have access.

"The enclave is currently controlled by Sudan, and numerous eyewitness reports indicate that elements of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Kafia Kingi have actively sheltered senior LRA commanders there and provided them with limited material support," the report said. "According to LRA defectors and other sources, LRA leader Joseph Kony himself first traveled to the Kafia Kingi enclave in 2010. He returned to Kafia Kingi in 2011 and was present there throughout parts of 2012."

In a series of makeshift camps near a Sudanese army barracks, Kony "continued to direct LRA attacks against civilians in neighboring countries and issue new orders for LRA fighters."

The Ugandan military — with support from U.S. military advisers — is the driving force behind the hunt for Kony. Ugandan army spokesman Col. Felix Kulayigye said the report vindicates Uganda's contention that the LRA is a beneficiary of Sudanese support. Ugandan army officials said late last year they believed Kony was hiding in Sudan-controlled territory, although now they believe he has moved elsewhere.

"We always knew Kony was hiding in Kafia Kingi," he said. "The way forward is that no country should be hiding a wanted criminal."

Kony watchdog groups are concerned that Kony can retreat to Kafia Kingi whenever his pursuers get close. Resolve said it has satellite imagery of the now-abandoned camp where Kony was reportedly seen in late 2012. The warlord is no longer believed to be hiding there, the report noted, saying he may have crossed to Central African Republic.

Sudan has consistently denied charges it supports Kony, a warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United States government is evaluating the report that the LRA is operating in the Kafia Kingi region, said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell Friday.

"The U.S. and the international community as a whole would take very seriously any credible evidence of support or safe haven being provided to the LRA," said Ventrell, citing a December statement at the U.N. expressing concern about the LRA's possible presence in Kafia Kingi.

"We continue to discuss our concerns about the whereabouts of Joseph Kony with all governments in the region, including with the government of Sudan, and we have encouraged Sudan to cooperate with regional efforts to counter the LRA," Ventrell added. "We're in a position now where two of the top five commanders are gone, the number of people killed by the LRA has gone down by 66 percent, and defections continue. So our pressure on the LRA continues."

Kony's LRA, which originated in Uganda in the 1980s as a popular tribal uprising against the government, has become notorious for recruiting children as fighters and forcing girls to be sex slaves. Military pressure forced the LRA out of Uganda in 2005, and the rebels scattered across parts of central Africa. LRA fighters are now believed to be operating mainly in the jungles of Congo and Central African Republic.

Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, the top commander of African forces hunting for Kony, recently said he believed Kony had crossed to Central African Republic, where last month rebels deposed a president and expressed hostility toward foreign troops operating in the country. The lack of cooperation from the new government there forced the African Union to suspend military operations against Kony, who over the years has taken advantage of porous borders and weak governments to regroup.

The LRA is vastly diminished from previous years, and its forces now don't exceed 500, according Brig. Olum. Many of Kony's fighters have defected in the past year, and some of his top lieutenants have been captured or killed in combat. Last year an LRA commander believed to be Kony's military strategist was seized by Ugandan troops.

Sudan's support for Kony threatens progress made against the LRA, said the new report by Resolve.

"Unless addressed, it will also enable LRA leaders to outlast current counter-LRA operations," the report said. "Though international diplomats and military officials working to stop LRA attacks privately acknowledge recent LRA movement in Kafia Kingi, they have not adopted realistic strategies to prevent further support from Sudan to Kony's forces."

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African forces suspend hunt for warlord Kony

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — African troops in Central African Republic have suspended the hunt for the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony because the new government there is not cooperating with the mission, Uganda's top military official said Wednesday.

Operations against Kony were put on hold until the mission's status is clarified by the African Union, under whose mandate the forces are deployed in the expansive central African country where rebels deposed a president and took the capital, Bangui, more than a week ago, said Ugandan army chief Gen. Aronda Nyakairima.

"We put a halt to operations until we consult," Nyakairima said. "We're still there and we are going nowhere until we have consulted. We're officially there under the African Union."

About 3,000 African troops, the bulk from Uganda, are currently deployed against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Central African Republic, where a former rebel leader named Michel Djotodia has since appointed himself president and announced a new government. The African Union forces are supported by about 100 U.S. military advisers.

Nyakairima said Ugandan troops would stay in Central African Republic until the AU clarifies their status. The AU has suspended Central African Republic's membership and imposed travel restrictions on the country's self-appointed leaders.

Kony, who over the years has taken advantage of weak governments and porous borders to regroup and recruit fighters, would get a lifeline if those deployed to catch or kill him are forced to leave Central African Republic.

It will be a "catastrophe for civilians in the Central African Republic" if the African troops left the country, said Kasper Agger, a researcher with the U.S.-based Kony watchdog group Enough Project.

"A full withdrawal of the Ugandans will also mean that the Americans have to leave as well," Agger said. "All the top commanders of the LRA are in the Central African Republic. That is where the center of gravity of the operations should be. This will only give the LRA a new safe haven."

Former Central African Republic President Francois Bozize was a strong supporter of the military effort to eliminate the LRA. African and U.S. forces use two military bases in Central African Republic for their operations against Kony, an elusive warlord whose precise whereabouts are not known.

Kony and the LRA were the subjects of a popular online video, "Kony 2012," by the charity Invisible Children which was released in March 2012 to bring global attention to his many crimes. The video was seen by more than 100 million viewers online and created international outrage against Kony. The LRA is accused of recruiting child soldiers and taking girls as sex slaves in a brutal campaign for power that originated in Uganda in the 1980s.

Although the LRA continues to abduct children and raid villages in Congo and Central African Republic, the group is not as strong as it once was. Ugandan officials estimate the rebel group's strength at about 250 men, most of them scattered in small groups that are constantly moving in the jungle to elude detection.

Most LRA fighters are operating in Central African Republic, according to Ugandan officials.

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Rebel group: Congo warlord wanted control of M23

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A spokesman for a Congolese rebel group said Thursday that rebel fighters in the M23 group were trying to kill warlord Bosco Ntaganda, who fled Congo and turned himself in to a U.S. Embassy last week before being transferred to the International Criminal Court.

Rene Abandi said Ntaganda tried to "influence the chain of command" but went too far when he challenged M23 military chief Sultani Makenga.

Fierce clashes between rival factions of M23 earlier this month left Makenga with the upper hand and triggered the chain of events that forced Ntaganda to give up his freedom after nearly seven years as a fugitive warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

On March 18, days after losing a fight with an M23 faction loyal to Makenga, Ntaganda showed up the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and asked to be transferred to the ICC. This week he made his first court appearance at The Hague.

"What shocked Gen. Makenga was this fight which was the stupidity of Ntaganda," Abandi said from the rebel stronghold of Bunagana in eastern Congo. "After that our goal was just to neutralize him because he was causing problems. He tried to influence the movement from outside."

It remains unclear how Ntaganda ended up in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, or what motivated him to surrender. Abandi said they believe he sneaked into Rwanda through a jungle crossing that is not heavily policed by Rwandan border officials.

"He passed through an area where there is no official border, near the Virunga National Park," Abandi said.

Ntaganda, the boss of a rebel group that was M23's precursor, had lived a relatively free life in the eastern Congolese town of Goma, allegedly occupying a villa there and even playing tennis. An ethnic Tutsi born in Rwanda, he was first indicted in 2006 by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers during a 2002-03 conflict in Congo's eastern Ituri province. A second arrest warrant issued last July accused him of crimes including murder, rape, sexual slavery and pillaging.

For M23, according to Abandi, Ntaganda's exit from the Congo left the group stronger even as it dimmed hopes for a peace process that had been under way in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, since December. Those talks are now on hold, with both the Congolese and M23 delegations saying they are holding consultations.

M23 had split at the end of February following a dispute among the leaders of the movement when Makenga dismissed the political head of the movement, Jean-Marie Runiga. Both men then formed their own factions, which have been fighting since.

The fight between M23 factions divided the group's peace delegation and led to the ouster of its leader, Francois Rucogoza, who is now afraid to return home, according to Chrispus Kiyonga, the talks' Ugandan mediator.

M23 is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army last April. The rebels accuse Congo's government of failing to honor the terms of a 2009 peace deal that incorporated them into the national army. In turn, the government accuses M23 of violating that agreement by taking up arms instead of talking. Even as human-rights groups charge M23 with numerous human-rights violations in eastern Congo, regional leaders have urged the Congolese government to listen to the "legitimate grievances" of M23.

According to Abandi, Ntaganda's side spread rumors that Makenga was secretly doing business with the government in Kinshasa even as a delegation from M23 negotiated peace with the Congolese government in neighboring Uganda. When those claims failed to sow discord among the fighters, he said, Ntaganda then tried to challenge Makenga militarily.

"Gen. Makenga won the fight," he said. "The morale of the troops is now high. They are very proud of their general."

There is no international arrest warrant out for Makenga, but he is under U.N. sanctions and rights groups say he has committed crimes similar to those attributed to Ntaganda.

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Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda remains at US Embassy

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Wanted on an international warrant for alleged war crimes, Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda lived openly in Congo for years, playing tennis at exclusive clubs and dining at lakeside restaurants in full view of foreign diplomats and U.N. peacekeepers.

That all ended when the 39-year-old known as "The Terminator" suddenly turned himself in Monday to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and asked to be handed over to the International Criminal Court — a surprise move that followed a split in Ntaganda's rebel group and apparent loss of support from his backers in the Rwandan government.

"My best guess is that his options came down to go to The Hague or be killed," Tony Gambino, the former director of USAID in Congo, said of the about-face by Ntaganda, one of Africa's most-wanted men.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that Ntaganda would remain at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali while U.S. officials worked to "facilitate his transfer to The Hague at his own request."

Noting that Rwanda's Justice Ministry had promised safe passage, she said, "now it's a matter of working out the modalities, and that's going to take a little time."

Ntaganda, an ethnic Tutsi, was first indicted in 2006 by the ICC for allegedly building an army of child soldiers during a 2002-2003 conflict in Congo's eastern Ituri province. A second arrest warrant issued last July accused him of a range of crimes, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and pillaging.

Those who until recently fought alongside him say that Ntaganda fled Congo over the weekend after his men lost a key battle against fighters who split off last month from his M23 rebel movement.

Ntaganda was long believed to have been backed by Rwanda, which provided financial and logistical support to the ethnic Tutsi rebels he commanded in Congo's mineral-rich east.

After the rebels seized the Congolese city of Goma in November, U.N. investigators issued a day-by-day outline of the invasion, detailing how Rwanda equipped, trained, advised, reinforced and directly commanded the rebellion, including sending four companies from Rwanda's 305th brigade across the border to conduct operations.

Rwanda has fiercely denied the accusations, but several countries including the United States and Britain cut off aid to Congo's smaller, but more developed neighbor as a result.

Ntaganda became more vulnerable last month when the M23 split into two camps over the decision to bow to international pressure and withdraw from Goma late last year.

Ntaganda and another rebel leader, Jean-Marie Runiga, had opposed any pullout, but a rebel general, Sultani Makenga, ordered a retreat and initiated peace talks with the Congo government.

After entering Rwanda in the pre-dawn hours Saturday, Ntaganda tried to reach out to his backers in the Rwandan army, said Stanislas Baleke, a political official in the M23 movement who has links to Ntaganda. "But once he was in Rwanda they told him they could not guarantee his security," Baleke said.

Ntaganda was then told by his Rwandan contacts to go to the U.S. Embassy, he said, noting that the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has no obligation to hand Ntaganda over to the court.

Nuland said the U.S. had no prior contact with Ntaganda or advance notice that he would turn up at the embassy. "It was a walk-in in the truest sense of the word," she said.

She declined to say why he chose the U.S. Embassy or whether he may have feared for his safety.

"I'm going to let him speak to his motives," she said. "He has now asked to go The Hague. That's a good thing we're trying to facilitate."

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Gouby reported from Goma, Congo. Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

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US: Congo warlord Ntaganda turns himself in

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — A Congolese warlord accused of conscripting child soldiers who had lived as an international fugitive for years surrendered to the United States Embassy in Rwanda on Monday and asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.

The move marks a major advance in efforts to prosecute Bosco Ntaganda, who had become a symbol of impunity in Africa as he played tennis and lived in an upscale villa in eastern Congo despite the international warrants for his arrest.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Ntaganda walked into the U.S. Embassy in Kigali on Monday and asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. She said the U.S. was consulting with the Rwandan government.

"We want to facilitate that request," she said. "We strongly support the work that the ICC is doing to investigate the atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And we are going to continue to work with the ICC on this matter."

The ICC first indicted Ntaganda in 2006. However despite that warrant, he went on to become a general in the Congolese army, living freely in eastern Congo.

The ICC has no police force and has to rely on member states to detain those it indicts. Congo failed to apprehend him for years, and the United States is not a member.

"If he's actually handed over to the International Criminal Court or a court that would prosecute him, that would be a huge step forward in the fight for justice in eastern Congo," said Carina Tertsakian, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.

The allegations against Ntaganda date back to crimes allegedly committed a decade ago in northeastern Congo. However, human rights groups say he has been implicated in other attacks on civilians in eastern Congo during his time as a fugitive.

News of Ntaganda's surrender first came in a Tweet and later in an official communique from Rwandan Foreign Minister and government spokeswoman Louise Mushikiwabo.

While Ntaganda was long believed to have enjoyed Rwanda's support, his relationship with the country where he was born has been unclear ever since his rebel movement split into two different factions earlier this month.

It was unclear why Ntaganda choose to surrender, and to turn himself into the U.S. embassy, after years at large, though the split within his group may have left him more vulnerable. The move comes days after Ntaganda's ally Jean-Marie Runiga was detained by Rwandan authorities. The leader of a rival faction within the M23 movement at the time vowed to go after Ntaganda next.

The news of Ntaganda's surrender was hailed by Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende.

"We are confident they will hand him over to justice," he said of the U.S. officials in Kigali.

Nicknamed "The Terminator," for his ruthless actions, Ntaganda was born in Rwanda in 1973, and moved to the neighboring nation of Congo as a teenager.

He was first indicted in 2006 by the International Criminal Court for conscripting and using child soldiers during his time as a senior commander in a Congolese rebel group accused of terrorizing the Ituri region of eastern Congo between 2002 and 2003.

He later joined and rose through the ranks of a different rebel group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, which signed a peace accord with the Congolese government on March 23, 2009.

That accord paved the way for Ntaganda and his fellow rebels to join the ranks of the regular Congolese army.

Then last spring, he and his men began defecting from the Congolese army by the hundreds, claiming that the government had failed to uphold their end of the 2009 deal.

They started a new rebellion, dubbed the M23, in honor of the March 23 signing of the now-defunct 2009 accord. And in November last year, the rebel group marched into and seized control of the provincial capital of Goma.

Ntaganda's exact role in the M23 rebellion remained murky. Human rights groups accused him of leading it, while other M23 leaders attempted to distance themselves from the fugitive general.

Rights groups on Monday called for Ntaganda's swift prosecution.

"Bosco Ntaganda is not called 'The Terminator' for nothing. The U.S. should immediately hand him over to the International Criminal Court for trial," said Sasha Lezhnev, senior analyst for the Enough Project in Washington, who closely follows Congo. "This would send serious signals to current and future warlords who continue to perpetrate atrocities in eastern Congo."

In Congo, Henri Bora Ladyi, who works at the Conflict Resolution Center which helps demobilize child soldiers, including some who fought in Ntaganda's rebel army, said: "It's a relief, but justice must be done. We fear that he will be kept in Rwanda and won't be extradited. Now what is important is to create space so that children in the M23 can leave the movement."

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Gouby contributed to this report from Goma, Congo. Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi and Krista Larson also contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

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