The Lord’s Resistance Army and the Responsibility to Protect

This brief seeks to clarify how the Responsibility to Protect [R2P] applies to the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] and examines the measures that should be taken by regional governments, the African Union [AU], donor governments and the UN Security Council in order to protect populations under threat.

Key Messages • The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has committed crimes against humanity across central Africa for more than two decades posing a grave threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
• Regional governments, with the assistance of the international community, have a responsibility to protect populations from this threat and to take action to prevent and halt the crimes committed by the LRA
• Recent international efforts to confront the threat posed by the LRA, including African Union and UN Security Council engagement as well as the deployment of military advisors by the United States, are a positive development.
• Engagement must be sustained until the threat is removed. This requires improved efforts to protect civilians, capture senior LRA commanders, and entice low and mid-level fighters to leave the group through disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration programs (DDRRR).
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