Global Security Studies Practicum

15 October 2011 Washington - The US has sent special operations forces to Uganda to help the military fight the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Matt Brown of the Enough Project, a US group working to end genocide and crimes against humanity, states, Obama’s purpose maybe to reward Uganda for their troop service in Somalia. Capturing the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony is Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, priority. Museveni has committed thousands of military troops to Somalia to fight militants from al-Shabab, a group with ties to al-Quaida. Representatives, Senators, and Congressmen agree with Obamha’s decision to send aide, however, Senator John McClain said, it is a “worthy goal” but congress should have been consulted. The US has sent $45 million in military equipment to Uganda. The US legislation passed bipartisan support for the coordination of US diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military efforts against the LRA. Brown believes, “regional stability is also good for US interests....

Durin g an annual meeting, the head of the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) , Antonio Guterres , criticized the international community for reacting too slowly to a deterioration in the Horn of Africa hunger crisis . Aid workers and critics say a string of early warnings about drought and failed rains in the region has been months if not years in the making. More than 13 million people face severe hunger across East Africa. Somalia is at the epicenter of the crisis, with 750,000 people facing imminent starvation. Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab has refused to allow food shipments to many of the famine-hit areas of which it controls. Other suffering countries in the region include Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda. Guterres used his speech to highlight what many U.N. officials expect to be the increasingly unpredictable nature, frequency and severity of tomorrow’s humanitarian crisis. He appealed to UNHCR’s executive committee for a better understanding of the need for more funding fl...