Operation Lightning Thunder and the Christmas Massacres

 

In December 2008, when it became clear that Kony wasn’t going to sign the agreement, Operation Lightning Thunder was launched. It was the coordinated effort of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Sudan, with intelligence and logistical support from the United States.
The operation failed. Joseph Kony somehow learned of the attack in the hours before the air-raid and so he was able to escape. In retribution for the attempted attack, the LRA, led by ICC-indictee Dominic Ongwen, attacked villages in the DRC on December 24, 2008, killing 865 civilians and abducting 160 more over the course of 2 weeks. The LRA fighters were reportedly instructed to target churches, where people would be gathered with their families for Christmas Eve services.
A year later the LRA reprised the Christmas massacres in the Makombo region in northeastern Congo as a reminder of its powers of destruction. These attacks took place over 5 days, from December 14-18, 2009. This time they killed 321 people and abducted 250.
Because of the remote region of the Makombo massacres in December 2009, the outside world knew nothing about the attacks until 3 months later. Human Rights Watch broke the news on March 28, 2010.

Posted in: DR Congo, ICC, LRA, Massacres, Operation Lightning Thunder