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March 9, 2012
An extraordinary thing happened on Monday night and Tuesday. Kony 2012, an online video campaign by an American NGO called Invisible Children, went viral in social media, where it was shared tens of thousands of times. The campaign draws attention to fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, calling on the public to encourage the use of military force to capture him and bring him to justice at the International Criminal Court.
As leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Mr. Kony is accused of leading a civil war against his country’s government, targeting innocent civilians and abducting thousands of children in northern Uganda. Although there is now peace there, the LRA still operates in Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
It’s a good thing that people are paying attention to this issue. Atrocities in Central Africa are often ignored, and the fact that thousands of people are becoming aware of the situation presents an opportunity to help people who have suffered a great deal.