President Obama gives hope to Africa

During its recent investigation of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) crimes, Human Rights Watch researchers noticed hundreds of people in the Central African Republic wearing t-shirts bearing US President Barack Obama’s image. For them, and for LRA victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Obama is a hero. Many even had personal messages for him.

In May, Obama signed into law legislation requiring the US to develop a strategy to protect civilians from the LRA and to stop the rebel group’s violence. The new strategy is due by November 24.

Between May and September, our researchers spoke with hundreds of the rebel group’s victims, taking their testimony, and recording their messages to Obama and other world leaders.

WATCH THE POWERFUL VIDEO FROM AFRICA HERE

The LRA has carried out horrific atrocities across central Africa. It reinforces its numbers by abducting children, who are then forced to fight and kill. Across northern Congo, southern Sudan, and CAR, the LRA has killed 2,385 people in the past two years and caused more than 400,000 to flee their villages and abandon their fields.

Even in the crush of politics at home, President Obama should respond to the cries of the LRA's victims. His leadership is needed with other governments to protect civilians and arrest those responsible for the LRA’s war crimes.