USA vs. LRA - The Last Nail in the Coffin?

President Barack Obama’s decision to send 100 combat troops to Central Africa to help local forces wipe out the remnants of the Lord’s Resistance Amy has been met with mixed feelings at home.

Some say the U.S is finally stepping up to eradicate one of the worst rebel groups in the world, notorious for abducting women and children to use as sex slaves and soldiers, and end its 20-year battle with the Ugandan government.

Others see this as a futile effort to hunt down Joseph Kony, the mastermind behind the LRA, where others have failed.  Many also believe that this should not concern U.S security at a time of shrinking defense budgets.

Sceptics say the move is payback for Ugandan troops fighting al-Shabaab in Somalia and is driven by a vested interest in stabilizing the region and capitalizing on oil discoveries in Uganda.

But despite U.S support coming late, when only a few hundred of Kony’s men remain border-hopping in Central Africa, countries like South Sudan say it is definitely not too little too late.

Military and government spokespeople this week lauded the U.S action and voiced their belief that the U.S might finally eradicate the group that had eluded the forces of South Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic for decades.

South Sudan says that the U.S has the expertise and air surveillance that these Central African countries lack and which these groups have bargained on since peace talks with Ugandan government fell apart in 2008.

In Yambio, a city close to the border with DRC, whole villages are still squatting on disused land with little food and no services. They are too afraid to return to their homes and fields for fear that the LRA will return and commit further atrocities. Some have only just been reunited with their children who have returned and escaped from the LRA.

Aid agencies say the groups have exacted a huge toll on these areas, including destroying families and agricultural production in South Sudan’s greenbelt that is vital for feeding the new nation.

Whether 100 combat troops can help Central Africa seek and flush out these terrorists once and for all remains to be seen, but the will and hope of countries like South Sudan are definitely behind them.