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Eleven years ago, a documentary catapulted the name Joseph Kony onto the global stage. The  told the story of a Ugandan warlord whose forces are  to be responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 people, the abduction of at least 20,000 children and the displacement of more than two million people.

Though most of the world hadn’t heard of Kony before then, Ugandans knew and feared him. The founder of the  unleashed a wave of violence across northern Uganda for two decades.

, the International Criminal Court brought charges of crimes against humanity against Kony and four of his top commanders.  and , the US announced a US$5 million bounty for information leading to Kony’s capture.

He remains at large.

Now the International Criminal Court wants to  against Kony in his absence. The hope is that this will renew international efforts to find Africa’s most wanted fugitive.

So, who is Joseph Kony?

His early life

 was born in 1961 in Odek sub-county in northern Uganda. He was one of six children in the Acholi middle-class family of .

Kony’s parents were farmers. His father was a Catholic, his mother an Anglican. Kony was an . He dropped out of school at age 15 to become a traditional healer.

In 1987, aged 26, Kony founded the , a Christian fundamentalist organisation that operated in northern Uganda until 2006.

Altar boy turned rebel leader

Kony rose to prominence after taking over the Holy Spirit Movement, a rebel group led by Alice Lakwena, his aunt, to topple the Ugandan government.

The Holy Spirit Movement was formed after Ugandan president , an , was overthrown by the National Resistance Army – led by  – in January 1986. The Acholis largely occupy northern Uganda.

Museveni’s National Resistance Army was a rebel outfit that later metamorphosed into the . Today it’s the national army.

When it came to power, the National Resistance Army appeared to  the Acholi population in the north. Villagers were violently attacked by army troops and subjected to food shortages. Houses were burnt down, leading to forced displacements. The scale of these attacks was never documented or substantiated.

Kony joined the Holy Spirit Movement to fight for the . By 1987, however, army troops had  – Lakwena escaped into Kenya where she died in a refugee camp in 2007.

Kony established the  and proclaimed himself his people’s prophet. He soon turned against his supporters, supposedly in an effort to “purify” the Acholi and turn .

The rebel group carried out . It  boys as soldiers and girls as sex slaves.

Ideologically, the group espoused a mix of mysticism, Acholi nationalism and Christian fundamentalism. It claimed to be establishing a  based on the biblical  and Acholi tradition.

Kony proclaimed himself the spokesperson of God. He claimed to have been visited by a multinational host of 13 spirits, including a Chinese phantom.

Kony’s military offensive

Kony and his rebel outfit committed a string of atrocities against civilians. The group waged war for more than two decades within Uganda – and later in the politically unstable neighbouring countries of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic – in an effort to topple Museveni. The actual number of militia members varied over this period, hitting a high of 3,000 soldiers in the early 2000s.

After the  terror attacks in the US, the American government designated the Lord’s Resistance Army .

In 2005, the International Criminal Court  for top commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army for crimes against humanity.

In , the US declared Kony a global terrorist, a designation that carries financial and other penalties.

The Lord’s Resistance Army was eventually forced out of Uganda following the failed  of 2006-2008 between the group’s leadership and the Ugandan government. The talks were mediated by the government of southern Sudan.

Kony and his militia  in the DRC. In December 2008, Uganda, DRC and Sudan launched an offensive dubbed  to track them down.

Kony’s rebel group attacked Congolese civilians suspected of supporting the operation. Villagers were raped, their limbs mutilated and . The group  to evade capture, with most members escaping into the Central African Republic.

Uganda called off the operation in March 2009, saying the Lord’s Resistance Army was at its .

In , Central African Republic officials reported that Kony was ready to . He was reported to be in poor health in Nzoka, a town in the country’s eastern region. He never showed up.

, the rebel group’s membership had shrunk to an estimated 100 soldiers.  that year, the US and Ugandan governments ended efforts to find Kony. They stated he no longer posed a significant security risk to Uganda. But he is still wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Kony today

Some of the fighters from the Lord’s Resistance Army took advantage of Uganda’s 2000 amnesty programme, which offered blanket immunity to any rebel who had taken up arms against the government since 1986.

Kony’s exact location, however, remains unknown. He’s thought to be hiding in  of the Central African Republic or in .

While attempts to bring Kony to justice continue, post-conflict northern Uganda is on the  to economic and social recovery.

Tonny Kirabira is currently conducting research for a PhD in Law, at 1024�˹��� Business School in the Faculty of Business and Law.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons Licence. .