KAMPALA, Uganda – Ugandan troops have stepped up efforts to hunt down rebels headed by Joseph Kony after a recent internet campaign aimed at securing the fugitive's capture, Ugandan officials said Tuesday.
Ugandan soldiers will head a new regional force -- comprising troops from South Sudan, Central African Republic and Congo -- to hunt Kony and his rebel fighters, who are currently holed up in the jungles of Central Africa.
Colonel Flexi Kulayigye, Ugandan army spokesman, said, "A Ugandan commander has already been appointed to head the regional force of 5,000 troops."
The new force will augment at least 4,000 US-backed Ugandan troops currently in the Central African Republic hunting for the rebel leader, whose forces are blamed for abducting at least 30,000 children from Northern Uganda in the last two decades.
A 30-minute internet video, "Kony 2012," released earlier in March, has become the most viral in web history with some 137.2 million views by the end of last week, according to online measurement firm Visible Measures Corp.
Produced by San Diego-based nonprofit organization Invisible Children Inc, "Kony 2012" focuses on the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, who is accused of recruiting children into sexual slavery and using them to wage a violent campaign to topple Uganda's government.
