The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2017 15 Kony’s savagery and pressure the United States to takemilitary action, had released a 30-minute documentary, “Kony 2012.” It drew 100million views in its first week alone, making it the fastest-growing viral video in history up to that point.The group also gathered 3.7million signatures on a call for international action to end the conflict. In a September 2013 update (“Kony 2013”), we reported that the Obama administration had deployed 100 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers to Central Africa, to train local troops and assist in the manhunt. Their efforts effectively reduced the LRA to a shell of its former self and drove Kony into hiding, most likely in South Sudan. Noting that the State Department was offering a $5 million reward for informa- tion leading to Kony’s capture, the Talking Points item saw “reason to hope that 2013 will be the year he and his followers finally face justice.” Alas, our optimismproved premature. On April 22, Associated Press reporter RodneyMuhumaza broke the news that Uganda and the United States had called off themanhunt, claiming that the LRAwas only a nuisance, not a regional menace. In a May 9 follow-up, Muhumaza cites a December 2016 United Nations report on sex- ual violence in conflict, which states that the LRA remains a regional menace: “The Lord’s Resistance Army con- tinued its decade-old pattern of abduction, rape, forcedmarriage, forced impregnation and sexual slavery” in the Central African Republic and has a presence in Congo and South Sudan.” And sure enough, for the first time in five years, on June 7 40 LRA rebels kidnapped 61 civilians in the Tanganyika mining area near Garamba National Park in the DRC’s Haut-Uele province. Though the villagers were released unharmed after being forced to transport goods and food the group had looted, an unknown number of themhave fled the area. At least one NGO involved in protecting civilians has already suspended work in the province due to insecurity, and others may follow. —Steven Alan Honley, Contributing Editor Annual PDAA Awards Winners Hailed for Creativity and Innovation T he 2017 winners of the 20th annual PDAA awards for excellence in public diplomacy were honored at a May 7 celebration in Washington, D.C. PDAA is a volunteer, nonprofit organization of current and former State Department, broadcast, academic and private-sector public diplomacy profes- sionals (formerly known as the USIA Alumni Association). U.S.CONSULATEGENERALNAHA Dolores Prin, second from right, at a school in Okinawa.