Forces closing in on LRA leader Kony: UN

Joseph Kony, pictured in 2006, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. By Stuart Price (AFP/File)

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Joseph Kony, one of the world's most wanted men, is having to move camp nearly every day as hunters close in on the African guerrilla leader who may now be in Darfur, a top UN envoy said Friday.

Defectors have also reported that the Lord's Resistance Army chief is becoming increasingly unstable, Abou Moussa, UN special representative for Central Africa, told AFP.

Kony, who launched his rebellion in Uganda, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and his global notoriety increased this year through an internet video that has been watched tens of millions of times.

"Contrary to what Kony use to do -- that he would stay one month, two months on the ground -- he is now moving almost every other day which means the pressure is mounting on him," said Moussa.

"He is moving and they have found traces of where he has settled. People who have defected have provided information on his state of mind," added the envoy, who is helping to coordinate the international hunt and get more governments to try to trap Kony.

Kony is no longer "very very stable," said Moussa, head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa.

A multi-national force, led by Uganda and helped by 100 US Special Forces, has been chasing Kony in Uganda, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

For a long time Kony was believed to be in the jungles of Central Africa. "There are so many indications -- some are even indicating that he may have crossed into Darfur," Moussa said.

The UN envoy said he had met Chad's President Idriss Deby to secure a promise that the country would detain Kony if he entered Chad. Moussa added that he had asked to meet Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to get a similar commitment.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo predicted Thursday that Kony will be "arrested or killed" this year.

Kony is wanted by the ICC for rape, the mutilation and murder of civilians, as well as abducting and forcibly recruiting children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.