On average, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks a community in central Africa every 28 hours.
Yet despite that alarming fact, some in Washington believe that the LRA is no longer a serious threat to the people of central Africa and that the crisis doesn’t deserve increased attention. How is it possible that — with an LRA attack occurring almost every day — this perception could persist?
The answer may be simpler than you think. A dangerous disconnect exists between the reality of what communities in central Africa face daily and the information is currently reaching the outside world. Due to lack of roads, telecommunication infrastructure, and coordinated reporting systems in areas being targeted by LRA violence, less than 10% of LRA attacks are ever reported by the media.
That means that 9 times out of 10, the suffering of a community terrorized by the LRA goes unknown by the rest of the world. And as a result, the decisions of our policymakers that affect the safety and security of innocent families are often being made with misinformation about the severity of LRA violence. Someone needs to mend the disconnect, and fast.
That is why Resolve has come together with Invisible Children to develop something that will revolutionize our work: the LRA Crisis Tracker, a web-based map that will provide the most comprehensive, real-time alerts of LRA attacks and movement ever available, making the urgency of this crisis undeniable.
The map, being fed real-time information from Invisible Children’s HF radio network, the United Nations, and contacts on the ground, will be the first effort in the history of the 25-year conflict to document and broadcast to the outside world each and every atrocity the LRA commits against the people of central Africa. It will feature news of attacks that have never been reported, along with video, photos, and testimony from survivors of LRA attacks.
In the coming months, Congress will decide on the national budget and President Obama will decide the priorities of his administration. During this critical window of time, the strategy to end LRA violence that we have all worked so hard to achieve could easily to get buried and forgotten in the competing priorities of Washington. This new tool will help us all make sure that doesn’t happen.
We’ve got our work cut out for us, and we rely on your partnership. Please consider partnering with Resolve as a Cosponsor. Your monthly donation of $20 will not only help us develop and maintain the LRA Crisis Tracker, you will provide us with the reinforcement we need to mobilize activists as effectively as possible this fall.
Like we’ve said all week, it’s time to get personal. Thank you for sticking with us.
- Lisa