Don, Suzy and 17-year-old daughter Braman were all able to join in this project. When Braman returned home she was asked, “What do you think it meant to the Batwa people to see you as a family all come?” She grinned and wisely replied, “They knew for sure that we loved them!”

Read more in the Fall 2011 Newsletter.

The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has fought the Ugandan government since 1986.
Its fighters, who are being hunted by Ugandan special forces, are now spread across northern DR Congo, Southern Sudan and the east of the CAR.
“They’ve been carrying out mass-scale abductions in order to replenish their ranks,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC’s World Today programme.
Some of those abducted managed to escape, bringing with them tales of children forced to kill other children and trained to treat other human beings as animals.
“The LRA tied the hands of the victims behind their back, a cord around their legs, and placed the victims face down on the ground,” a 12-year-old Congolese girl told Human Rights Watch.
“Then the LRA would give us children a heavy wooden stick and force us to beat them on the head till they died.”
International action
The Human Rights Watch report says girls are being used for sex or as servants. Refusing sexual relations is often punished by death.

“We’ve conducted interviews with hundreds of people over the course of the past month. And the evidence is overwhelming that this is indeed being ordered by the LRA’s leader Joseph Kony and being carried out by his top commanders,” Ms Van Woudenberg said.
To escape these activities, 54,000 villagers have fled from their homes in the Bas Uele region of northern DR Congo.
Mr Kony began his rebellion 20 years ago, claiming to want to install a Bible-based theocracy in Uganda.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and now lives an itinerant life, crossing between Sudan and the CAR.

The cost of everything has increased in Haiti since the earthquake, so please pray that God will provide the necessary resources to complete all of this work. We are grateful for all who have helped, but there is more to do.

Sorry for the trouble… Someone hacked in and sent out the email.

The airport in Port-au-Prince was badly damaged and closed, so I flew to Dominican Republic with my twin brother Dan. We carried with us 100 Sawyer Point One water filters, along with some medicine and a few supplies. Then we purchased more supplies in the Dominican Republic and boarded a small plane to Jacmel, Haiti to meet Pastor Banes, the Haiti National Director for Evangelism Explosion and begin our work. Over the next four weeks we distributed nearly five hundred water filters systems. All of this was made possible because of the generous support of our friends at Good Shepherd Community Church, Evangelism Explosion, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, United Caribbean Trust, GAIN USA and many, many others. Since then distribution has continued and to-date nearly one thousand water filter systems have been distributed.

Each water filter system recipient has committed to share the over 120 gallons of filtered water per day with at least ten of his neighbors families. This is effectively now providing clean, safe drinking water for 10,000 Haitian families; over 120,000 gallons of clean, safe water EVERY DAY for years to come. What is even more exciting is that most of these filters were distributed to people trained in personal evangelism and all of this done through the local churches. This means people come to get clean, safe drinking water and hear about the LIVING WATER available by trusting in Jesus Christ. As funds become available we pray more water filter systems can be distributed. Many thousands more will be needed. When the water filter systems are distributed in this way it takes only $5.00 per family to provide all of the clean safe drinking water they need for years to come, less than a penny per day per family .

It is true that the problems in Haiti have never been greater, but I believe the opportunity to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ has never been GREATER. It is in times like this when the question we should be asking ourselves is this “What is it that God would have me to do for the least of the brethren. “

More Pictures From Haiti On Flickr

The rampaging rebels, according to the report by Human Rights Watch, also abducted 250 villagers, including at least 80 children.

The massacre was perpetrated by rebel commanders Binansio Okumu, also known as Binany, and Obol.

The two, the report said, report to Dominic Ongwen who commands the LRA forces in Congo and is among those indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

“The Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history, yet it has gone unreported for months,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch.

The report is based on a fact-finding mission to the massacre area in February. It documents the brutal killings during the well-planned LRA attack from December 14 to 17 in the remote Makombo area of Haute Uele district.

Dressed in military uniforms, the rebels pretended to be Congolese soldiers who had spent months in the forests and asked local people for food and other goods.

Read Full Story:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201003290006.html

Units from the Congolese national army, or FARDC, sent to protect civilians and fight the LRA have shown little interest in either task. Congolese soldiers largely refuse to engage LRA while constantly harassing the local population. Incidents of rape, looting, beatings, and even killings of innocent civilians by Congolese soldier abound. There were 116 reported cases of rapes allegedly committed by Congolese soldiers last October in just one neighborhood near the Congolese army base in Dungu.[5] Meanwhile, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, or MONUC, is stretched too thin to adequately protect civilians in the vast region where the LRA operates, often in diffuse cells.

The movement of some LRA elements into Darfur should alarm policymakers and spark revitalized international efforts to deal with the militia.[6] But these efforts should not neglect the LRA’s continuing ability to wreak havoc in northeastern Congo. Both the Congolese army and MONUC should urgently prioritize the protection of civilians. The Congolese army should take swift action to deal with abuses committed by its soldiers, prosecuting those who commit abuses with a focus on command responsibility. Moreover, a credible investigation into the embezzlement of U.N.-provided rations and supplies for the Congolese army is urgently required. The misuse of such materials contributes to the army’s bad behavior and is an obstacle to more effective efforts to deal with the LRA.

U.N. presence, especially in the areas worst affected by LRA violence, is crucial. Unsurprisingly, LRA attacks happen most frequently in places with no peacekeepers. A promised contingent of Tunisian peacekeepers should be deployed immediately to Province Orientale. The majority of the newly arrived troops should be deployed to Niangara, Ngilima, and Bangadi, with at least some presence in Bas Uele. This force will need rapid response capability, including helicopters and other vehicles. In the meantime, MONUC should conduct frequent and routine joint patrols with FARDC soldiers. Joint patrols help enormously in terms of protection and evidence demonstrates that Congolese soldiers behave better when in the company of peacekeepers.

If the Congolese army can improve its behavior, U.N. cooperation with it should expand to include information sharing and coordinated operations aimed at protecting civilians and neutralizing the LRA. Wherever possible, such cooperation should also be established with the Ugandan army, which is still operating in Congo in pursuit of the LRA. Successful cooperation between Congo’s army, MONUC, and Ugandan forces appears to have succeeded in protecting the population of Faradje from attacks last year and compelling the LRA commander, Lt. Colonel Charles Arop, to surrender in November.

Practical steps to improve civilian protection can also contribute to a more coherent regional approach to end the threat posed by the LRA. MONUC’s civilian component also has an important role to play. Political affairs officers with the capacity to collect and analyze information on the LRA should be deployed to Dungu. Likewise, increasing cross-border cooperation between U.N. operations in Congo, Sudan, and Central African Republic, or CAR, could help to develop a more holistic strategy, under the aegis of the U.N. Security Council.

Read Full Article:
http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/lra-army-abuses-congo