The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. October 17, 2011 Obama Deploys Troops to Africa to Fight Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda --------------------------------------------------------------------------- President Obama has deployed about 100 “combat-equipped U.S. forces,” including special operations personnel, to central Africa to help fight against Uganda’s renegade Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony. In a letter to U.S. congressional leaders, Obama wrote, "I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield." The 100 troops, primarily U.S. special operations forces, will reportedly assist forces from Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In June, it was revealed the United States would provide drone air crafts to Uganda and Burundi as part of a $45 million military aid package. Uganda is also the site of a recent major oil discovery. Researchers estimate the Lake Albert basin holds between between 2.5 and 6 billion of barrels of oil. It is the largest onshore oil discovery in sub-Saharan African in more than two decades. .