Resolve

Posts by Kenneth

‘Peace Can Be’ Report Series | 1: Photo Essay

March 5, 2012 by Kenneth

 

Today we’re kicking off a blog series about Resolve’s latest report, Peace Can Be: President Obama’s chance to help end LRA atrocities in 2012. We don’t normally do this, but to start off we wanted to share a series of images to go along with the paper. The photos show the effects of LRA violence, the people it has impacted, the conditions in the area, and how communities are coping. The analysis and policy recommendations included in the report were based on three months of research in LRA-affected regions of Congo, CAR, South Sudan, and Uganda conducted by Resolve team member Paul Ronan, who also took most of these photos. Read the full report here, and stay tuned for more discussion on one of the paper’s main themes, regional coordination, next week.



President Obama signing the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act on May 24, 2010.

“Unless the U.S. moves quickly to complement and expand on existing efforts, LRA leader Joseph Kony will likely outlast President Obama and his LRA strategy as effectively as he has outlasted the efforts of four previous U.S. presidents.”





Vehicle destroyed by the LRA near Dembia, CAR in June 2011 in which the region’s chief medical officer was killed and valuable polio vaccinations destroyed. (Credit: Civil society representative in southeast CAR)

“Military forces have failed to protect civilians from LRA reprisal and survival attacks during which the group has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400 others since 2008.”





Abandoned Ugandan military camp in Banda, Congo

“One of the central challenges to the successful implementation of the Obama Administration’s LRA strategy is the breakdown in cooperation among governments in the region… The governments of Congo, CAR, and South Sudan have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to succeed against the LRA on their own”





Runway to remote community in Congo

“The U.S. should increase its intelligence and aerial mobility support to the Ugandans, and help repair civil-military relations.”





Members of the self-defense group in Bambouti, CAR demonstrate how to use matchstick heads to make ammunition for homemade guns used to guard against the LRA.

“If current initiatives fail to break apart the LRA’s command structure, the group will be poised to survive indefinitely and eventually replenish its strength in the tri-border region.”





Grandfather of two children abducted by the LRA in June 2011. Arrow boys later rescued the two children. (Yambio, South Sudan)

“U.S. military advisors [should integrate] protection strategies into Uganda’s operational planning, reporting alleged military abuses against civilians, and sharing intelligence about LRA activity with civilian early warning networks.”





Arrow Boy assigned by his community to protect farmers previously displaced by the LRA (Yambio, South Sudan)

“Local self-defense groups, known as the Arrow Boys or Home Guards,… take advantage of relatively extensive mobile phone and road networks within South Sudan to share information about LRA activities”





Radio Zereda in Obo, CAR

“Radio programs remain the most efficient way to spread ‘come home’ messages over vast distances to isolated [LRA] groups.”





Mobile phone equipment in Mboki, CAR

“The U.S. must invest more in civilian early warning networks and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs, which can help mitigate the consequences of LRA violence and reduce the group’s capacity to prey on vulnerable civilians.”





Young Congolese displaced boy in Dungu who broke his leg after falling from a mango tree

“Emergency aid and capacity-building for civil society is needed in areas of CAR, Congo, and South Sudan where the LRA has displaced over 465,000 people and is exacerbating communal tensions.”





Vehicle stuck on degraded road connecting Source Yubu, South Sudan and Bambouti, CAR, along the main road between the two countries

“The Administration must make decisions about the advisers’ future based on their progress towards achieving clearly defined benchmarks and not on the shifting political currents in Washington, DC.”





Mbororo herders at the cattle market in Mboki, CAR

“A premature withdrawal [of the U.S. military advisers] would deflate promising momentum from regional governments and U.S. officials to push forward on both military and civilian aspects of the counter-LRA effort.”

Resolve releases November 2011 LRA Crisis Tracker Security Brief

December 20, 2011 by Kenneth

 



With the launch of the LRA Crisis Tracker this fall, Resolve and Invisible Children have been able to significantly increase the amount of information of LRA attacks available to the international community. As our teams worked on the Crisis Tracker over the last year, we focused heavily on making this data both relevant and actionable.

Achieving that aim has involved the development a series of monthly and quarterly analytical reports that trace trends in LRA movement and provide a summary of levels of violence over particular time periods. These LRA Crisis Tracker Security Briefs are designed to serve as helpful resources for NGO partners, United Nation’s staff, policymakers and local community leaders, seeking to effectively address LRA violence.

Today the LRA Crisis Tracker team published the November Security Brief, available in both English and French. Take a few minutes to check it out.

Previous months’ reports, along with a sign up form to receive reports by email, can be found here.

LRA Crisis Tracker team heads to Geneva

November 16, 2011 by Kenneth

 



Resolve and Invisible Children just wrapped up their time at the International Conference of Crisis Mappers (ICCM) in Geneva, Switzerland, where Invisible Children’s Adam Finck presented the LRA Crisis Tracker. (more…)

SUPPORTER WEEK DAY 2 | Field Research: The stories behind the statistics

July 26, 2011 by Kenneth

 



This post was written by Kenneth Transier, the logistics and security coordinator for Paul Ronan, Director of Advocacy at Resolve. Check out the video above for words directly from Paul, on field assignment in central Africa.

There is a steady rhythm to my day when Paul heads to the field. At 7AM I wake up here in Washington, D.C to a text from Paul’s satellite phone with relevant itinerary and security notes. To close out the day, Paul will call me at the Resolve office at 5PM, confirm his new location, troubleshoot any logistical problems, and relay a few short stories about his day’s work.

At the end of these calls, I often have to hold back laughter as he describes walking into his room at a UN compound to see the walls covered in half-foot long lizards, or when he recounts the 18-hour bus ride from Juba to Yambio that involved welding on a broken muffler and the bus driver’s two-hour hunt for cheap black-market gasoline.

Other times, however, the stories are more serious. I listen as Paul describes his visit to a cultivation center south of Yambio that had been attacked by the LRA just days previously; stories of interviews with Arrow Boys who, in order to protect their communities, crafted shotgun barrels from re-purposed motorcycle handlebars; or encounters with community members who requested UN contact information so that they could alert aid agencies that they’ve never received humanitarian assistance even after two years of steady, unrestrained LRA violence.

The strength of Paul’s work lies in the relationships he builds with religious and civil society leaders, NGO workers, and community members in LRA-affected areas, as well as through his collection and careful analysis of their stories. When he finishes his field assignments and returns to HQ in Washington, his research equips Resolve with extensive and in-depth knowledge of the current situation in central Africa. This knowledge and partnership-building with those directly affected by the LRA guides Resolve’s policy recommendations as we continue to advocate for an end to the brutal violence of the LRA.

That is why I am personally inviting you to help support our field work by becoming a Resolve Cosponsor today. Your monthly financial contribution enables us to send Paul to the most remote communities affected by LRA violence — areas so difficult to reach that very little, if any, communication about LRA attacks is reaching the outside world.

I could not be more confident in the significance of Paul’s work in continuing to guide Resolve’s work and, in turn, challenge the decisions of our political leaders on LRA policy. Resolve’s work is needed more than ever as we continue to fight for increased momentum behind the President’s strategy to end LRA violence.

Would you consider becoming a Resolve Cosponsor today?

From Paul and from me, thank you for your support of Resolve and for your commitment to seeing LRA violence ended once and for all.

- Kenneth

P.S. To follow Paul’s travels and ask him questions, visit Resolve’s UNFILTERED site or follow him on Twitter at @resolvereports