WASHINGTON: About 100 US troops that President Barack Obama ordered to Uganda last month to help crush the Lord's Resistance Army will probably remain deployed until the group's leader is captured or dead, the top US commander for Africa has said.
The head of the US military's Africa Command, Army General Carter Ham, said most of the American forces have landed in Uganda and are starting to co-ordinate the efforts of four central African countries as they comb a huge expanse of jungle for Joseph Kony, the messianic founder of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Kony and his rebels are accused of killing, maiming, kidnapping and raping thousands of civilians in Uganda, the Central African Republic, Congo and South Sudan.
Obama administration officials have been vague about how long US forces will remain in central Africa. In congressional testimony recently, a senior defence official said that the mission would last for a matter of 'months' but that it would be reviewed over time.
General Ham said the plan is to keep troops in the region until Kony is killed or brought to justice.
The head of the US military's Africa Command, Army General Carter Ham, said most of the American forces have landed in Uganda and are starting to co-ordinate the efforts of four central African countries as they comb a huge expanse of jungle for Joseph Kony, the messianic founder of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Kony and his rebels are accused of killing, maiming, kidnapping and raping thousands of civilians in Uganda, the Central African Republic, Congo and South Sudan.
Obama administration officials have been vague about how long US forces will remain in central Africa. In congressional testimony recently, a senior defence official said that the mission would last for a matter of 'months' but that it would be reviewed over time.
General Ham said the plan is to keep troops in the region until Kony is killed or brought to justice.
