Bodyguard of Kony ‘killed’ as Ugandan forces close in on LRA leader

Ugandan forces have killed a former bodyguard of Joseph Kony, a sign they are closing in on the fugitive rebel leader wanted for war crimes.

Dick Olum, who commands a regional task force hunting the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, said the bodyguard, Brigadier Binani, was killed near the town of Djema in eastern Central African Republic.

Kony, a self-styled mystic leader, fled Uganda in 2005, roaming first through South Sudan then north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He is accused of abducting thousands of children and forcing them to fight in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline.

REUTERS