by Samuel Egadu, Ronald Ssekandi
KAMPALA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- While the Ugandan and U.S. military officers say that they have weakened the capacity of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group, to cause mayhem, experts argue that the withdrawal of troops without capturing rebel leader Joseph Kony may cause a vacuum leading to the regrouping of the outfit.
Ugandan and U.S. military advisors have ended their hunt for the notorious rebel LRA holed up in the jungles of the Central African Republic (CAR).
The first group of the Ugandan contingent which was based in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) neighboring CAR arrived in Uganda on April 19. The rest will be pulled out gradually.
The U.S. military advisors totaling to about 100 are scheduled to leave the jungles on April 26.
"The decision to withdraw was premised on the realization that the mission to neutralize the LRA has now been successfully achieved," Brig. Richard Karemire, Ugandan military spokesman said in a statement.
"The LRA capacity and means of making war against Uganda have been degraded. Senior key commanders such as Dominic Ongwen, Okot Odyambo and other fighters have over the years been killed, captured or surrendered," he added.
Samantha Reho, Media Relations Officer, U.S. Africa Command, told Xinhua in an email that the U.S. troops will now be moved to a broader security scope and stability activities in Africa.
She said the troops that have been involved in the operation now have the capacity to address regional security threats more effectively.
The U.S. troops were deployed in 2011 while the Ugandan military working under an African Union mission have been fighting the rebels since 2008.
Although Uganda and the U.S. troops claim victory over the LRA, security experts argue that the withdrawal will allow the LRA time to regroup and reorganize themselves to carry out attacks and abduction of the civilians.
"If the Ugandans were to completely withdraw and their contingent is not replaced by another country, it could create a huge vacuum," said Martin Ewi, Senior Researcher with Institute for Security Studies.
"There is also need to establish a trained battalion for preventing and intercepting kidnappings -this seems to be LRA's critical source of life," he added.
Brig. Karemire however argued that the LRA has been greatly weakened noting that it has less than 100 armed fighters.
He said that in its current state, the LRA poses no significant threat to Uganda.
He noted that Uganda is ready to support the capacity building of the CAR military to fight the LRA should the outfit regroup.
The LRA is a notorious rebel group that waged a twenty-year long insurgency in northern Uganda until it was pushed out by the military in 2006 after failed peace talks.
The fighters fled to neighboring South Sudan and then DRC and CAR.
It recruits its fighters through child abductions and carrying out heinous activities.
Its leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
One of his commanders, Dominic Ongwen is currently before the same court facing similar charges.
