If you ask anyone who knows who Joseph Kony is, they will probably tell you that he is/was the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
However, this is a very bare description of the man who oversaw the rebel group responsible in part for Africa’s longest armed conflict.
To get a clearer picture of Joseph Kony, numbers are very helpful. The LRA commander has been blamed for the deaths of at least 100,000 people and the suffering of millions more in Central Africa.
It is also claimed that Kony kidnapped 30,000 children to strengthen his army. Of those 30,000, Joseph Kony apparently referred to the boys as child soldiers and the girls as sex slaves.
Joseph Kony became one of the first people indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity and has long been the most wanted court. He had a $5m (£3.9m) price tag on his head and was being hunted by nearly 150 US special forces and more than 1,500 Ugandan troops.
Their hunt focused on a strip of remote forest and the border between Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.
After last year’s US elections, incumbent President Donald Trump had signaled a disinterest in continued involvement in anything LRA-related. It came as no surprise, then, when the US Africa Command began withdrawing the 250 Special Forces troops and airmen involved in the pursuit this week.
It may not have been surprising, but it was sad. Billions of dollars have been spent in the hunt for Joseph Kony and there are no results to back it up. In December, the ICC opened the criminal prosecution of a long-time confidante and henchman of Kony. A 41-year-old former child soldier named Dominic Ongwen.
He was charged with crimes ranging from murder and sexual slavery to conscripting child soldiers. Dominic Ongwen is quite a disappointing price for such an expensive hunt.
Joseph Kony remains at large, but analysts say he is no longer as dangerous as he used to be
Meanwhile, Joseph Kony is believed to still be moving with 20-30 loyal fighters, several wives, his two sons and hundreds of followers. He is said to be continuing to organize smuggling operations undetected while hiding in the disputed, mineral-rich area of Kafia Kingi in southern Darfur, Sudan.
Analysts advocating the end of The Hunt say both Kony and his LRA are a shadow of the threat they were 10 or even 20 years ago. Officials and senior soldiers in Uganda and the US seem to agree that the LRA is no longer a threat. Ugandan troops have also started leaving the Central African Republic.
With this bailout on the hunt, it might just be right to say well in answering the question; Who is Joseph Kony? that he’s the man who terrorized Africa and managed to get away with it. We can only hope that this is not the end of this story.