Central Africa villages take on LRA rebels

“Charlie Six, India One here… we’re going to begin the check-in,” says radio operator Joanick from his small studio in Obo, calling out to the surrounding villages in southeast Central African Republic.
It’s a daily meeting at dawn, when each village informs the base if it has been hit by an attack from rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who have fled to the restive CAR after being driven out of Uganda.
Obo, a small community of huts made from ochre-coloured earth, is near the border with South Sudan and has little contact with the government in the far-off capital, Bangui.
Unlike much of the CAR, which was torn apart by sectarian violence between the mainly-Muslim ex-Seleka rebels and Christian vigilante groups, this isolated corner of the country is battling a different danger: renegade LRA fighters.
So the people here have taken security into their own hands, and have become a bit high-tech.
Since 2010, the US charity Invisible Children has given the village chiefs high-frequency radios and satellite telephones.
In the Obo radio studio, suddenly a report of an attack comes in from Dembia, a few kilometres to the west. A group of assailants entered the village, stealing everything in the shops and burning down homes.
“Burnt homes, okay.” Joanick confirms what he’s just heard and asks: “Any kidnappings?”
“They captured three farmers,” the Dembia operator answers, but then adds that they were later released.