KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 12 (UPI) -- Members of the international community are "very concerned" about attacks attributed to the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa, a U.N. envoy said.
The United Nations said the LRA is suspected of massacres in regional villages and is notorious for its use of child soldiers. The world body said since 2004, only remnants of the group remain. There's been a rise in attacks attributed to the LRA in 2012, however.
Abou Moussa, the U.N. special envoy for Central Africa, met in Kinshasa with Francisco Madiera, special LRA envoy for the African Union, to discuss coordinated efforts to counter the threat from the group, which the AU has designated as a terrorist organization.
"We are very concerned about the repeated attacks by the LRA in this region and elsewhere," said Moussa in a statement. "It must stop now."
Moussa said more than 4,200 people have been displaced regionally because of LRA activity. An AU task force in Democratic Republic of Congo was deployed recently to take on the LRA threat.
Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, remains at large despite a 2005 indictment by the International Criminal Court on more than 30 counts of violations of international law, including war crimes.
