History Of Joseph Kony In Uganda

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In today’s world there are over a hundred rebel groups. Many of them are in foreign countries such as Afghanistan, Brazil, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Angola and Africa. Currently, there are approximately 300,000 child soldiers; roughly 40% are in Africa to sustain ongoing conflicts. Africa’s rebel groups are responsible for over 10,000 murders and for the abduction of more than 24,000 children in Uganda (Wessells, p. 363). One of the world’s most notorious rebel groups is armed with children and is run by a very dangerous man by the name of Joseph Kony in northern Uganda. Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in Odek Uganda, a village east of Gulu. Kony fell under the sway of apocalyptic religious leaders and in 1986 gathered followers for his own rebellion (Wessells, p. 92). Joseph Kony created the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as a movement to fight for his Alcholi people. The LRA has been active since 1986 and is widely known as Africa’s oldest and most violent armed rebel groups. The LRA is notorious for engaging in human rights violations such as rape, sex slavery, murder, mutilation and the looting and destruction of hundreds of villages throughout Uganda, The Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and The Central African Republican. The LRA is estimated to have about 150 to 300 armed fighters. After fighting for the A lcohli people, Kony began to lose all support and decided to start attacking innocent civilians, kidnapping children and forcing them to fight in his rebel forces. Many people seem to question why Joseph Kony targeted children to fight in his rebel army. Most of Kony’s child soldiers were young boys between the ages of 7 and 16 years of age (Boyden, p. 133). Joseph Kony seemed to have had the idea that children were... ... middle of paper ... ... terrible things. One could only imagine the things that innocent children are forced to do on a daily basis. Unthoughtful murders, unwanted diseases, terminal illness, separation of families and a total loss of the minds are all the things that children of rebel groups encounter every day. Many people say they are against it and want it to stop, but verbally speaking against using children for soldiers is just not enough. Jospeh Kony is only one man there are hundreds of other terrible rebel leaders all over the world who are using children as soldiers and sex slaves who need to be brought to justice and punished. Innocent children are kidnapped from their childhood lives and are made to do awful things against their wills. We, as a people need to all come together and help to save the children and rescue them from the hands of Joseph Kony and other rebel leaders.

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