Four Corners: Sept 17

This week, Four Corners looks at African warlord Joseph Kony and asks how has he managed to escape capture for so long?

Somewhere in the vast, dense jungles of central Africa, one of the world’s most wanted men, warlord Joseph Kony is hiding. For the past 25 years, Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have waged one of the continent’s most brutal conflicts; using an army of abducted and brutalised children to kill and maim tens of thousands of people.

Six months ago Kony became the target of an internet campaign, run by the activist group Invisible Children, titled “Kony 2012”. Using a thirty minute video posted online it told Kony’s story and demanded to know why this brutal killer had not been brought to justice. The intention of the campaign was to put pressure on the United States and governments in Africa to track Kony down and make him pay for his crimes.

Six months on though, little has changed and Joseph Kony remains free. With several hundred armed fighters he remains in the jungle, surviving with the support of villagers who admire, fear or are in debt to him.

How has one man, who is said to take his orders from the spirit world, managed to escape capture for so long?

In the wake of the “Kony 2012” internet campaign earlier this year BBC reporter Sorious Samura investigates the myths surrounding Kony and travels to the front line of the fight to bring one of Africa’s most bizarre and brutal leaders to justice.

Monday 17th September at 8.30 pm on ABC1.