Washington Joseph Kony's days are numbered as offers of amnesty have produced better intelligence on the brutal African warlord's whereabouts, a top senator said on Wednesday as lawmakers signalled they will push for expanding the US State Department's rewards for justice programme to target the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.
"The noose is beginning to tighten," said Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who travelled to Africa earlier this month and met with US military advisers and Africans in the hunt for Kony.
The warlord and his ruthless guerrilla group, the Lord's Resistance Army, are responsible for a 26-year campaign of terror in central Africa that has been marked by child abductions and widespread killings.
Last year, US President Barack Obama dispatched 100 US troops — mostly Army Special Forces — to central Africa to advise regional forces in their hunt for Kony, a military move that received strong bipartisan support.
In recent weeks, Kony has become a household name as a video by the group Invisible Children went viral on the internet, viewed by some 100 million people.
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, particularly the subcommittee on African Affairs, focused on Kony long before the video but have ratcheted up the pressure in recent weeks.
Hearing
At Wednesday's hearing, Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., told State Department officials that he will introduce legislation in the coming weeks to expand the rewards for justice programme. The programme, established in 1984, gives the Secretary of State the authority to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits or attempts international terrorist acts.
In nearly 30 years, the US has paid more than $100 million (Dh367.8 million) to more than 70 people for information about terrorism.
