From The Republic

The fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony has handed over command of his group to one of his sons, a Ugandan military official said on Tuesday, an elevation that further marginalizes senior commanders who may threaten Kony’s fading authority.

Salim Saleh was born in the 1990s, has spent all his life in the bush, and is said to be as ruthless as Kony.

Ugandan military spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said Saleh is “as hard as his father, radical like his father.”

“It appears that the son has now taken over completely,” Ankunda said, noting that Kony increasingly has to rely on his sons to stay fully in charge of a group in decline.

Kony is the subject of an international manhunt involving U.S. forces in parts of Central Africa, where his group — the Lord’s Resistance Army — has wreaked havoc over the years in violent rampages that include the abduction of children. The LRA has taken boys who are then forced to become fighters and girls who become sex slaves, one of the reasons the group has gained international attention in recent times.

Saleh has been in charge of Kony’s security amid a heightened search for the warlord and his top commanders in Congo and Central African Republic.

Read more at The Republic