Congo Massacre Uncovered

Fighters of a local self-defence force sing with riffles on February 18, 2009 in Bangadi, north eastern Congo. (Lionel Healing/AFP/Getty Images)

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch issued a report about a deadly rampage in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) last December.

Between Dec. 14-17, members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian militant group based in northern Uganda, “killed at least 321 civilians and abducted 250 others, including at least 80 children” in rural northeast DR Congo according to the Human Rights Watch Web site.

The LRA has a 23-year history of extreme brutality against civilian targets in Uganda, southern Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Congo.

In March 2009, the Congolese government ended a military campaign to break up the LRA, declaring the group no longer a threat.

In March 2009 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.

If the bill becomes law, the U.S. government will provide humanitarian aid to LRA victims and attempt to eliminate the LRA threat.