Strategy Papers

On February 9-10, 2012 the International Contact Group on the Great Lakes Region will meet at the Department of State in Washington, DC. The following are recommendations to the group on specific elements of each subject area where this body can act to create real progress to mitigate conflict and fill critical gaps in cross-border coordination and communication.

This report argues that the U.S. mission to end the Lord’s Resistance Army needs more capable troops, more robust transport and intelligence capabilities, and a two-tiered strategy to encourage defections. The report also calls for an agreement that allows regional troops to deploy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since its independence last year, the Republic of South Sudan has successfully addressed a number of critical issues, but also has setbacks and challenges, many of which are the result of decades of war and neglect.

In Issue #3 of our LRA Strategy Report Cards we take stock of what President Obama has accomplished in the first year of implementing his comprehensive strategy to address Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) violence in central Africa, and what he will have to do in the coming months if hopes for an end to LRA violence in 2012 are to be realized.

The international community must temporarily redirect the pressure it is placing on Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, and insist that it focus first and foremost on ensuring unimpeded access to famine victims in its areas of control. In Somalia, 750,000 people are at immediate risk of famine and a total of 4 million—half the total population—needs emergency assistance.

Now is the time to bring an end to the predatory militia known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA. If efforts to counter the LRA are not dramatically bolstered by sustained U.S. leadership, the group could strengthen and become an even greater threat to regional stability.

The time has come to recognize that the issues in Darfur mirror those in South Kordofan, Blue Nile, and the East, and should therefore not be dealt with in isolation. The international community needs to abandon its piecemeal approach to Sudan and unite behind a demand for a comprehensive solution to the problem of overly concentrated, abusive power at the center.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in August 2009, and expressed a strong commitment to addressing the causes of conflict and unconscionable loss of human life. It is time for the U.S. administration to back the secretary’s words and deliver on its promises aimed at bolstering democratic processes and ending violence against civilians.

Before the end of this year tens of thousands of people in Somalia—possibly hundreds of thousands—are going to die. As Somalis now starve, the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab denies them even the opportunity to migrate in search of food.

Somalia is dying. Three-quarters of a million people are at immediate risk of famine; another 750,000 are refugees in neighboring countries, and 4 million – half the total population – is in need of emergency aid.