Last Saturday South Sudan became an independent nation. Incredibly good news. Yet the new country faces a variety of challenges, both internal and external. Among the latter is the continuing threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has long served in the area as a proxy militia for Khartoum. Last November I traveled to Yambio, along the southern border of what’s now South Sudan. Resident of the area’s jungle villages, tired of repeated attacks by the LRA, which operates out of bases across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, have formed local militias to defend their families and communities from the terror of the LRA. Dubbed the “Arrow Boys” because of the relatively simple weapons they carry, they have nonetheless leveraged their superior knowledge of local conditions into a effective defense. I went on patrol with some Arrow Boys near the village of Riimenze, and here’s an image from that experience. Simon Peter Gamana is on the right; behind him is Charles Gorden. Here’s a story about them. And here’s a story about one boy who was kidnapped by the LRA and later managed to escape.