The Sudan Handbook

sudan’s REGional RElations 263

delivering weapons to the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique

du Congo (FARDC) when fighting broke out between the government

and the rebel General Laurent Nkunda.

Recently, the DRC has suffered from the depredations of the wild,

omni-directional LRA insurgency. In the 1990s the LRA leader Joseph

Kony was forced to flee northern Uganda to escape military pressure and

took refuge in southern Sudan with the help of the Khartoum govern-

ment. After the CPA, when the SPLA took over control of Juba from

the Khartoum government, Kony and his followers crossed the Nile

and walked to the DRC, and reestablished themselves in the Garamba

National Park, close to the tri-border of Sudan, Uganda and the DRC.

On 14 December 2008 an offensive by the armies of these three countries

tried to dislodge him. But the attack was poorly organized and the LRA

managed to flee, causing massive havoc in the region. In the space of

three weeks it killed nearly 500 civilians in the Congo and more than 40

in the southern Sudanese state of Western Equatoria. Since then it has

continued to operate in northern DRC.

The question remains as to whether the Khartoum regime still

provides the support for the LRA that it did in the past. There is no

proof of current Sudanese government involvement, but its past record –

following a pattern of denials by Khartoum, then contradicted by material

evidence – creates a strong likelihood of complicity.

Uganda

Sudan’s relationship with Uganda became stormy in the 1970s, after

the overthrow of President Milton Obote by General Idi Amin Dada

in a military coup. Idi Amin, who had been put in power with Israeli

help, initially supported the anti-Khartoum Anyanya guerillas, which

led Khartoum to provide Obote with a military base at Owinyi Kibul in

southern Sudan from which to harass northern Uganda. But Amin did

an about-turn, rallied to the ‘progressive’ Arab camp, and betrayed the

Anyanya rebels. In return, Khartoum kicked out Obote. Amin neverthe-

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors less maintained his contacts with the former guerillas, and when the

(www.riftvalley.net).