Senior Lord's Resistance Army commander surrenders to US troops

A senior commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army – the brutal insurgent force which has terrorised a swath of central Africa – has surrendered to American forces.

Uganda’s military confirmed on Wednesday that Dominic Ongwen was in the custody of US special forces in Central African Republic.

“His surrender puts the LRA in the most vulnerable position,” army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said, adding that Ongwen had first surrendered to CAR’s Seleka rebels, before being handed over to American forces.

It remains unclear if US forces will now hand Ongwen over to Uganda, with the LRA commander facing crimes against humanity and war crimes charges at the international criminal court.

When asked if US troops would send Ongwen to Uganda, Ankunda said: “We are working out procedures.”

While Uganda is a signatory to the ICC and legally bound to hand Ongwen over for trial at The Hague-based court, President Yoweri Museveni last month called for African nations to quit the ICC, accusing it of being used as a “tool to target” the continent.

Ongwen is being held in the south-eastern CAR town of Obo, close to the border with South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Ankunda added.

Uganda’s confirmation that Ongwen has surrendered follows Tuesday’s announcement by the US State Department that a man claiming to be the commander was being held by American troops deployed in the hunt for rebel chief Joseph Kony.

The United States has offered $5m for the capture of Kony, who is also wanted by the international criminal court along with Ongwen and two other lieutenants.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ongwen in 2005 on charges of three counts of crimes against humanity and four of war crimes.

According to LRAcrisistracker.com, set up by two non-governmental organisations to map atrocities by the LRA, Ongwen was himself a child soldier abducted as a 10-year-old while on his way to school.

He rose rapidly through the organisation’s ranks, becoming a major at 18 and a brigadier by his late 20s.

But he has reportedly had a volatile relationship with Kony.

The LRA first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986, where it claimed to fight in the name of the Acholi ethnic group against the regime of President Yoweri Museveni.

But over the years the LRA has roved across the porous borders of the region.

It moved from Uganda to sow terror in southern Sudan before shifting to north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, finally crossing into south-eastern CAR in March 2008.

Combining religious mysticism with an astute guerrilla mind and bloodthirsty ruthlessness, Kony has turned scores of young girls into his personal sex slaves while claiming to be fighting to impose the Bible’s Ten Commandments.

In March, Washington sent extra commandos and tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft to Uganda to help African Union forces hunt down Kony.

US-based campaign groups The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative and Invisible Children said in a November report that Kony is believed to have sought refuge in Kafia Kingi, an enclave controlled by Sudan.