Defections from LRA Gaining Momentum

From Enough blogs Thu Jan 31 2013, 08:52:57

Efforts to establish "safe reporting sites," where rebels with the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, can surrender peacefully, are starting to pay off. Enough Project partner Invisible Children recently reported on their blog:

Five individuals, some of them teenagers (...), escaped into Mboki, the first established Safe Reporting Site, after multiple years in the LRA and cited defection flier messaging as one of their main pieces of encouragement. (...) They walked out on November 30th and are no longer are living a life captive by the LRA.

Invisible Children has worked hand-in-hand with local community leaders, regional security forces, and U.S. military advisors to set up safe reporting sites across areas affected by the LRA in the Central African Republic and South Sudan. In contrast to previous initiatives implemented by MONUSCO in Congo, where the sites were established in remote locations in the bush, these new sites are located close to small villages with permanent deployment of local security forces. This is paramount to ensure the safety of civilians and to protect the defectors.

Escaping from the LRA is not easy. First of all one have to get the courage to run away from the group, with the danger of being killed by the former comrades, if unsuccessful. Then there are the practical questions like where and how do you escape?

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