Joseph Kony: The making of a warlord

Joseph Rao Kony is a Ugandan militant and warlord who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers and various other governments including the UK and US.

Kony was born in  1961 in Odek, Northern region, Uganda. He is a member of the Acholi people. His father, Luizi Obol, was a farmer and lay catechist of the Catholic Church. Kony's mother, Nora Oting, was an Anglican and also a farmer.

He was either the youngest or second-youngest of six children in the family.

He enjoyed a good relationship with his siblings but was quick to retaliate in a dispute, and when confronted, would often resort to physical violence.

Kony never finished elementary school, dropping out at age 15. He was an altar boy until 1976. He married Selly and together they had a son, Ali Ssalongo Kony.

In 1995, Kony rose to prominence in Acholiland after the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Auma (also known as Lakwena and to whom Kony is believed to be related).

The overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello by Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRA) during the Uganda Bush War (1981–1986) had culminated in mass looting of livestock, rape, burning of homes, genocide, and murder by Museveni's army.

In Acholi  Kony served as an Altar boy in his childhood. After the Uganda Civil War, Kony participated in the subsequent Insurgency against President Museveni under the Holy Spirit Movement or the Uganda Peoples Democratic Army before founding the LRA in 1987 aiming to create a Christian state based on Dominion theology, Kony directed the multi-decade Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency.

After Kony's terror activities, he was banished from Uganda and shifted to  south sudan. Kony described himself as a freedom fighter, struggling for Uganda.

Kony has long been one of Africa's most notorious and most wanted militant warlords.

He has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child soldiers and sex slaves.

Approximately 66,000 children became soldiers, and 2 million people were displaced internally from 1986 to 2009 by his forces.

Kony was indicted in 2005 for War crimes and crimes against Humanity by the International Criminal Court in Hague, but he has evaded capture. He has been subject to an Interpol Red Notice at the ICC's request since 2006.

Since the Juba Peace talks in 2006, the Lord's Resistance Army no longer operates in Uganda. Sources claim that they are in DR Congo, the Central African  Republic (CAR), or South Sudan.

In 2013, Kony was reported to be in poor health, and Michel Djotodia, president of the CAR, claimed he was negotiating with Kony to surrender.

By April 2017, Kony was still at large, but his force was reported to have shrunk to approximately 100 soldiers, down from an estimated high of 3,000.

Both the US and Uganda ended the hunt for Kony and the LRA, believing that the LRA was no longer a significant security risk to Uganda.

As of 2022, he is reported to be hiding in Darfur.

Religious beliefs

Kony's followers, as well as some detractors, believe he is possessed by spirits.

Kony tells his child soldiers that a cross on their chest drawn in oil will protect them from bullets.

He is a proponent of polygamy, and is thought to have had 60 wives,] and to have fathered 42 children.

Kony insists that he and the LRA are fighting for the Ten Commandments and defended his actions in an interview, saying, "Is it bad? It is not against human rights.

And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, those commandments were given by God.

Looking back at the LRA's campaign of violence, it stated that in 2015 Kony's forces had been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 and the abduction of at least 60,000 children.