Joseph Kony

Joseph Rao Kony (born c. 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union, and various other governments.

An Acholi, Kony was born into a middle-class family.

His father, Luizi Obol, and his mother, Nora Oting, were both farmers.

Kony dropped out of school at a young age.

Kony was born in c. 1961 in Odek, a village east of Gulu in northern Uganda.

His father, Luizi Obol, was a farmer and lay catechist of the Catholic Church.

Kony's mother, Nora Oting, was an Anglican and also a farmer.

His older sister, Gabriela Lakot, still lives in Odek.

He is a member of the Acholi people.

He was either the youngest or second-youngest of six children in the family.

Kony enjoyed a good relationship with his siblings, but was quick to retaliate in a dispute and when confronted would often resort to physical violence.

Kony never finished elementary school.

He was an altar boy until 1976.

He dropped out of school at age 15.

Kony married Selly and they gave birth to a son, Ali Ssalongo Kony.

The overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello by Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA) during the Ugandan Bush War (1981–1986) had culminated in mass looting of livestock, rape, burning of homes, genocide, and murder by Museveni's army.

The acts committed by the Museveni's NRA, now known as the Uganda People's Defence Force, led to Kony's creation of the LRA.

The insurgencies gave rise to concentration camps in northern Uganda where over 2 million people were confined.

The government burned people's properties using helicopter gunships, killing many.

There were forced displacements in the northern region.

International campaigns called for all camps to be dismantled and for the people to return to their former villages.

Approximately 66,000 children became soldiers, and 2 million people were displaced internally from 1986 to 2009 by his forces.

In 1987, he formed the Lord's Resistance Army.

Kony declared a military offensive in Uganda, aiming to overthrow Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan government and establish a theocratic state based on the dominion theology.

After Kony's terror activities, he was banished from Uganda and shifted to South Sudan.

Kony described himself as a freedom fighter, struggling for a Christian Uganda.

Kony has long been one of Africa's most notorious and most wanted militant warlords.

He has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child soldiers and sex slaves.

In 1995, Kony rose to prominence in Acholiland after the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Auma (also known as Lakwena and to whom Kony is believed to be related).

Kony was indicted in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but he has evaded capture.

He has been subject to an Interpol Red Notice at the ICC's request since 2006.

Since the Juba peace talks in 2006, the Lord's Resistance Army no longer operates in Uganda.

Sources claim that they are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), or South Sudan.

In 2006, in the Juba peace talks with the LRA rebels, Museveni's government gave permission for local people to return to their villages.

This marked the beginning of the rehabilitation of homes, roads, and so on.

Kony has been implicated in abduction and recruitment of child soldiers.

In 2013, Kony was reported to be in poor health, and Michel Djotodia, president of the CAR, claimed he was negotiating with Kony to surrender.

, Kony was still at large, but his force was reported to have shrunk to approximately 100 soldiers, down from an estimated high of 3,000.

Both the United States and Uganda ended the hunt for Kony and the LRA, believing that the LRA was no longer a significant security risk to Uganda.

As of 2022, he is reported to be hiding in Darfur.