Washington ( CNN ) -- President Barack Obama said Monday that U.S. advisers will keep trying to help Uganda and its neighbors capture Joseph Kony , the leader of the Lord 's Resistance Army . `` Today , I can announce that our advisers will continue their efforts to bring this madman to justice and to save lives , '' Obama said in a speech at the U.S . Holocaust Memorial Museum . `` It 's part of our regional strategy to end the scourge that is the LRA and help realize a future where no African child is stolen from their family , and no girl is raped , and no boy is turned into a child soldier . '' Kony , who was named a `` specially designated global terrorist '' by President George W. Bush in 2008 , gained worldwide notoriety this year after a 30-minute video called `` Invisible Children '' went viral on the Internet . When Obama ordered the effort last year , he had said the National Security Council would review any progress after 150 days . In October , Obama administration officials told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the deployment to Africa of approximately 100 advisers -- most of them U.S. Special Forces -- would be `` short-term . '' The U.S. troops have been serving in a mostly advisory role to forces from Uganda , South Sudan , the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic in dismantling the Lord 's Resistance Army and hunting Kony . For two decades , the group has terrorized central Africa through the abduction of children to serve as soldiers in a campaign of rape , pillage and murder . While the mission does not call for the U.S. troops to engage in combat , they are carrying weapons to be used in self-defense . The Lord 's Resistance Army , formed in the late 1980s , is a sectarian military and religious group that operates in northern Uganda and South Sudan . It has committed numerous abuses and atrocities such as abducting , raping , maiming and killing civilians , including women and children , according to globalsecurity.org . Its members are known for hacking off the lips and ears of their victims , looting villages and burning huts , and stealing clothes and medicine from the communities they terrorize . The group has sought to overthrow the Ugandan government and has contributed to instability across the Central African Republic , the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan . Kony is often `` underrated '' as a leader , according to a 2011 Jane 's report on the group . Kony has claimed to be possessed by spirits who dictate the group 's strategy . Jane 's notes that the tactic has served him well , enabling him to speak to followers who have mixed beliefs . By his portrayal as a medium with supernatural abilities , his authority becomes harder to question within the ranks . The Lord 's Resistance Army is sophisticated and less like the ragtag group of fighters it is sometimes portrayed as , Jane 's says . It has benefited from the military experience of former Ugandan military officers and years of combat in Sudan . International aid convoys and nongovernmental organizations operating in the region have been threatened by the group , according to numerous reports . Last year , the State Department said that , `` since 2008 alone , the LRA has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400 . The United Nations estimates that over 380,000 people are displaced across the region because of LRA activity . '' Kony says he is a prophet sent from God to replace the Ugandan government with a democracy based on the Ten Commandments .
Advisers working `` to bring this madman to justice , '' Obama says . Regional strategy aimed at ending `` scourge '' of Lord 's Resistance Army , he says . Kony gained widespread notoriety after a 30-minute video about him went viral .