This week a historic legislation aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running war passed by the United States Senate. The bill would require President Obama to develop a strategy to address ongoing mass atrocities by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) across three countries in

Africa. After more than 260 hours of a round-the-clock “hold-out” conducted by dozens of activists outside Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) Oklahoma City office, Senator Coburn – the one Senator yet to agree to the bill’s passage – relented and allowed the bill to go through.

“We celebrate this significant victory and thank the bill's Senate champions for their hard work to get it passed. But we also know that it is just one step toward our ultimate goal of seeing the leadership from this country needed to finally end Joseph Kony’s campaign of terror,” said Michael Poffenberger, Executive Director of Resolve Uganda. “We will continue to work until this bill is signed into law and the international community, with U.S. leadership, finally steps up to the plate to end the LRA's senseless atrocities."

The bill, known as the *Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act*, was introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) and has more bipartisan cosponsors than any Africa-focused bill in at least three decades. If passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law, it will require President Obama to submit to Congress a strategy to work with regional governments to apprehend top LRA commanders, improve civilian protection, and ensure affected communities have access to humanitarian relief.

“It was knowledge of the LRA’s ongoing violence – and the way it is impacting thousands of innocent people’s lives – that motivated activists to take such extreme measures to get this legislation across the finish line,” said Lisa Dougan, Director of Communications. “Something this urgent, where so many precious children are being abducted and forced to do horrific things, deserves our sacrifice.”

In the last two months, the Ugandan rebel group has massacred hundreds of civilians in DR Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic, and abducted hundreds more, including many children who are forced to serve as soldiers or “wives” of rebel fighters. The scale of LRA violence is currently outpacing the region’s other better-known conflicts.

To convince Senator Coburn to allow the bill to pass, dozens of activists refused to leave the sidewalk outside his office until a compromise was reached, ultimately staying there 24-hours a day for more than eleven days.

Oklahoman Mark Nehrenz, an organizer of the “Oklahoma Hold Out”, said, “Over the last eleven days and nights, I have stood beside, slept beside, and  frozen beside amazingly committed individuals from this state and all over this country. It has been painful and cold, but worth every last second.

This is just too important. What has happened here has been a monumental achievement towards peace and justice in central Africa. As a movement, we found our voices this week, and we will not be silent. We are here to stay."

 

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