Central African War

The Central African War was a massive, protracted and international military conflict that occurred in many areas in Central Africa, like Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda. The conflict began with two rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the Allied Democratic Forces, taking control of South Sudan and Uganda respectively, before a United Nations mission liberated the countries.

The Lord’s Resistance Army had been undergoing a major insurgency since the late 1980s, but the insurgency had been dying down in intensity. Operation Observant Compass, a mission done by the US in order to reduce the LRA’s activity, had a major impact on the LRA’s insurgency. However, Observant Compass had ended in 2017, so years later, the LRA began planning an insurgency in South Sudan to take power in the country.

The conflict began with the major insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army in South Sudan, taking control of the country with assistance from Sudan, and putting its ally, the Allied Democratic Forces, in charge of Uganda. During that time, they stole many resources from local villages in the areas, and put many captured soldiers into hard labor. The rebel groups also obtained the Central African Republic by increasing support for the CPC in the Central African Republic war, and invaded Ethiopia in an effort to annex part of it and create a rebel state out of the remaining land. Throughout all this time, Sudan and Chad had been supporting the rebel groups in their mission. Eventually, Chad fell after Nigeria and Niger invaded it and took its capital, N’Djamen. Soon, Uganda was liberated after South Sudan was invaded by a United Nations coalition, the LRA was pushed out of South Sudan and the Central African Republic, and Sudan was invaded to the point of surrender. Sudan had to cede territory to South Sudan, while Chad had to cede territory to Niger and Nigeria. The original governments of South Sudan, Uganda, and the Central African Republic were restored.

The war had devastating social repercussions, as the Lord’s Resistance Army and Allied Democratic Forces usually burnt down villages of tribes who resisted them and committed many massacres against opposing forces in countries they were invading, especially in the Central African Republic and Ethiopia. As the de facto government of South Sudan during the majority of the war, many policies that the LRA implemented had significant and negative effects on tribes in South Sudan. Over 3 million people died throughout the course of the war, with nearly 1 million of those deaths being citizens, making the conflict the deadliest in Africa since the Second Congo War.

Background
The Lord’s Resistance Army had been a major combatant in the Second Congo War, which lasted from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. It served mainly as an anti-Ugandan force, and had started an insurgency in the late 1980s in order to take control of Uganda and rule it in accordance with the Ten Commandments.