UN authorises force to capture Kony

The United Nations has endorsed an African Union force to capture warlord Joseph Kony and neutralise his Lord's Resistance Army.

The 15-member Security Council approved the United Nations Regional Strategy to Address the Threat and Impact of the Activities of the LRA in a presidential statement.

The plan provisions a new force of 5,000 AU soldiers and bolsters humanitarian efforts.

The LRA, carried out its worst atrocities in northern Ugandan in the 1990s, but had by 2004 largely been driven out of the area.

Remnants, however, continued to attack civilians in Uganda and three neighbouring countries. The group is notorious for carrying out massacres, mutilating victims and abducting boys for use as child soldiers.

Kony and the LRA gained notoriety following a YouTube video, Kony 2012, that went viral.

AP