Charles Arop, a senior Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), surrendered Nov. 3 to Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) officers, AFP reported Nov. 5, citing Ugandan army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye. While Arop was responsible for LRA operations in the DRC, the LRA maintains forces elsewhere, including its top leadership — notably Joseph Kony — in Sudan, as well as fighters in the Central African Republic (CAR) and sympathizers in Uganda. Despite the surrender, the LRA remains a low-level threat capable of destabilizing parts of Uganda, the DRC, the CAR and southern Sudan. STRATFOR sources in East Africa report that Kony is currently located in northern Sudan, just north of autonomous southern Sudan. Sudan is the LRA's historic patron, supplying it with weapons and training going back to the 1980s as a force to destabilize the Great Lakes region of Africa, particularly Uganda. Uganda responded to Khartoum's activation of the LRA by arming the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the governing party of southern Sudan. With national elections in Sudan set for 2010 and a referendum on independence in southern Sudan coming up in 2011, both Khartoum and Kampala have reasons to keep their respective proxies active and armed. Arop's surrender will mean the LRA will lose a measure of its capability in the DRC; however, as long as Khartoum harbors the overall LRA leadership, the Kony-led militia will be capable of maneuvering throughout a largely ungoverned swath of savannah in northeast DRC, southeast CAR, southern Sudan and a part of northwestern Uganda.