How has Joseph Kony survived repeated attempts to crush his brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, which continues to wreak bloody havoc after more than two decades of fighting?
The Daily Monitor's Angelo Izama writes that Kony's fortunes are not determined by the fighting prowess of his "brain-washed teenage brigades", but in the boardrooms of African and US statesmen.
The crafting of regional alliances through the US-brokered Operation Lightning Thunder, which saw the military forces of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Sudan band together to flush out the LRA from their base in the DRC, was perceived as the only way to end Kony's rein of terror.
Now, as the LRA regroups after the collapse of Lightning Thunder and the killings start afresh, Izama argues that the exit of Uganda's UPDF troops from the hunt for Kony may signal not only the resurgence of violence, but the resumption of hostilities between east African governments, which allows groups like the LRA to flourish.
