NAIROBI, 30 September 2011 (IRIN) - Detailed updates about the activity of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are now available in near real-time, thanks to a partnership between two US-based NGOs.

The LRA Crisis Tracker, a joint venture between Invisible Children and Resolve provides data on attacks, killings, abductions, injuries and looting by the LRA, an insurgency that began in northern Uganda in the 1980s, whose fighters are now scattered across remote areas of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

Data is published on the tracker's website as well as on social media such as Twitter and Facebook and via apps for iPad and iPhone. Historical monthly data going back to December 2009 is also available. The information derives from the Invisible Children early warning radio network, NGOs, UN agencies and other sources.

"I feel it's interesting but it wasn't available during the height of the conflict in northern Uganda," Lindsay McClain of the Justice and Reconciliation project in Gulu district, northern Uganda said. "I have seen the systems and it provides early warning systems to protect civilians but it's a challenge to these rural communities without access to the internet."

Source: The Integrated Regional Information Networks (http://www.irinnews.org )