Les Petits Choses

Who is Joseph Kony?

- Joseph Kony is the guerrilla group leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony’s LRA has kidnapped an estimated 20,000 children for use as fighters or sex slaves. As part of their initiation, these children are often required to kill their own parents, so they’ll have no homes to return to. (It’s not clear which of the Ten Commandments Kony’s strategy is based on.) Once kidnapped, children are used as pack mules, carrying LRA supplies until they are too weak to walk, at which time they’re killed or simply left to die. Kidnapped boys also serve as targets and decoys, sent to the front lines — unarmed — whenever the Ugandan Army engages the LRA. Kidnapped girls that Kony or his senior commanders find attractive become their “wives” (Kony is reputed to have 60). Troublesome captives have their noses, lips, and/or ears cut off, and are then made to eat their own flesh.