USA is still offering a $5 million reward for Joseph Kony

The US Government is still offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Joseph Kony.

You’ll probably remember Kony because of a massively viral campaign started by group Invisible Children and – in particular – filmmaker Jason Russell.

There was a lot more to that story than met the eye, in the end.

The aim of that 2012 video was to make Kony as famous as possible in the western world in order to encourage the global community to do something about him.

You see, Kony is a Ugandan militant who is the founder of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, as well as the European Union.

The warlord has been operating in Africa for many years and has been accused of recruiting children as both soldiers and sex slaves, with as many as 66,000 recruited to his army, as well as two million people displaced.

In 2005 he was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, although he has never been brought to justice.

Since 2017, no-one has really been looking that hard for him because the United States and Uganda decided that his army was no longer too much of a threat.

However, there is still a big reward on his head, and a tweet from the US State Department’s War Crimes Rewards Program claimed as recently as 13 November that the reward was ‘up to $5 million’.

A picture shared alongside that tweet reads: “JOSEPH KONY is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“No information is too small – help get him arrested.”

The United States War Crimes Rewards Program website states: “Under the War Crimes Rewards Program (WCRP), the U.S. Department of State offers rewards of up to $5 million (USD) to individuals who provide information that leads to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of designated defendants accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, or war crimes by an international criminal tribunal, including hybrid or mixed tribunals.

“The Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) manages the WCRP in close coordination with partners within the U.S. government, foreign governments, international tribunals, and non-governmental organizations.

“The WCRP has led to the arrest and capture of fugitives from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

“The ICTY has accounted for all 161 individuals it has indicted. Of the 90 individuals indicted by the ICTR, six fugitives remain at large.”

At the minute, there are only five – including Kony – listed on the website.

Those other fugitives listed are Fulgence Kayishema, Aloys Ndimbati, Charles Sikubwabo, and Ryandikayo, who are all wanted for crimes in Rwanda.

So, if you know where any of these guys are, you could be in line for a big reward.