The EU has offered to finance the construction of a new base for the Uganda People’s Defence Force to give impetus to the hunt for the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in East and Central Africa.

The $1.2 million base will act as the co-ordination centre for ongoing joint operations by a coalition of forces from Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan and the US, which has deployed its Special Forces to the hunt. 

“We have now been joined by the EU and they offered us $1.2 million to help us ensure a quick and successful ending to this operation,” Uganda’s Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told The East-African last week.

The EU’s eleventh hour entry has generated excitement in the Ugandan camp, with top military officials arguing that it provides a major boost to international public opinion necessary  for the elimination of the rebel outfit that has killed, maimed and displaced thousands  people.

“Although we would have preferred that assistance yesterday, it is a welcome gesture nonetheless,” said Col Felix Kulayigye, public relations officer for the UPDF.

“It confirms what we have been telling the international community all along, that the LRA is not Uganda’s problem alone but a menace to the entire region.”

The African Union has appointed former Mozambican foreign minister Francisco Caetano José Madeira as its special envoy to the regional taskforce to contain the rebels.

A recent  AU communiqué said Mr Madeira  will work with the governments of the LRA-affected countries to “provide overall political and strategic co-ordination of the operation against the LRA” as well as mobilising assistance for the victims of LRA atrocities, rebuilding shattered communities and mobilising rehabilitation for the affected areas.

In a related development, the United States Africa Command (Africom) and the UPDF concluded a combined logistical training exercise last week at Entebbe Air Base, with a view to equiping the UPDF soldiers with skills in delivering logistics to the rebel hideouts in the Central African Republic as well as protecting civilians in the course of the operation. 

The training in Entebbe is to be followed in quick succession by a series of others that will be conducted in other affected nations involving military personnel already taking part in the operation.

At the same time, the US has finalised work on the establishment of two military bases in two locations — Nzara in western South Sudan and Obbo in CAR — for the 100 US soldiers deployed in the region. While the role of the soldiers will be limited to training, assisting and providing vital intelligence information specific to the execution of the operation, Uganda’s military is upbeat that the US’s hi-tech assets and skills will shorten the span of the operation and limit casualties.

“We are now better technologically and hope the hunt will take a much shorter time,” Col Kulayigye said soon after the end of the training.

The US deployment is a fulfillment of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act signed into law by President Barack Obama last year. The Act authorises comprehensive US efforts to mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability.