A Joseph Kony confidante was killed by the Ugandan Army in the Central African Republic on Friday, the Ugandan Ministry of Defense announced.
The man killed served as the chief bodyguard to warlord Joseph Kony, who has led the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army for the last 20 years. Kony and a small band of fighters have been moving throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic in recent years.
The chief bodyguard to Joseph , a man known as Brigadier Binani, was in charge of supplying child soldiers to the LRA, Voice of America noted.Kony
“He had been in charge of gathering food and collecting abducted children for Joseph Kony,” said defense spokesman Felix Kulayigye.
The killing of Brigadier Binani means that the Ugandan army is closing in on Joseph Kony himself, Kulayigye added.
“It is a big accomplishment. Once you get the chief bodyguard of the leader himself it means you are quite near. [And] two, it means that the intelligence being collected is good, and the collection methods are good as well,” added Kulayigye.
In 2011, President Obama sent a group of US special forces to Uganda to help track down Joseph Kony. Kulayigye said he believes that fight is nearing its conclusion.
“In addition to these ones who were killed and captured, a number of children and former abductees had been escaping,” Kulayigye said. “So sooner or later the man either will commit suicide or will be captured or killed in action.”
Long one of the world’s most wanted warlords, Joseph Kony rose to fame in America in 2012 thanks to a viral marketing campaign known as Kony 2012 . The campaign detailed Kony’s past and urged viewers to contact their representatives to give more help in the search for Kony. The Kony 2012 video on YouTube, called a model of viral marketing by the Telegraph , got close to 100 million views.