RIVER VOVODO, Central African Republic - For Ugandan soldiers tasked with catching Joseph Kony, the real threat is not the elusive Central Africa warlord and his brutal gang.
Encounters with the Lord's Resistance Army rebels are so rare that Kony hunters worry more about the threats of the jungle: Armed poachers, wild beasts, bees and even a fly that torments their ears.
A soldier crossing the Chinko river in the Central African Republic on Wednesday was drowned and mauled by a crocodile, spreading terror among hundreds of soldiers who must camp near streams because they need water.
The crocodile attack was the second in two months, highlighting the perils of trying to catch a rebel leader about whom so little is known and who could be anywhere in this vast Central Africa jungle. There have been no signs of Kony in a long time, and the soldiers whose goal it is to catch him are in fact more likely to be killed by elephants and snakes whose paths they cross. Even bees can be a serious menace when they are migrating.
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Soldiers told an Associated Press reporter traveling with them about a tiny black fly that persistently hovers around and even enters their ears, reducing their concentration. The soldiers shake their heads violently or slap their ears, but the flies keep coming in huge numbers. The soldiers look forward to night, when the flies quit.
A crocodile attack last month on the banks of the Vovodo river left a soldier with horrific injuries.
Most Ugandan soldiers here remain hopeful that Kony, who last month became the focus of international attention after a U.S. advocacy group made an online video to publicize his crimes, can still be caught despite the challenges.
Invisible Children's campaign wants 2012 to be the year Kony is caught, and the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said he thinks Kony will be arrested soon.
Foot soldiers involved in the manhunt say much the same thing. Their optimism hinges on the vast amount of time and energy they've spent looking for Kony, saying it would be self-defeating to give up now. So every day they patrol the jungle, even if they have spent months without encountering anyone who remotely resembles the enemy.
"Who says it is easy to catch Kony? Let me tell you, Kony is not a grasshopper that's there waiting to be caught," said a Ugandan soldier.
On a search through the jungle on Thursday, about 60 Ugandan soldiers walked 10 miles without meeting a single person. The soldiers had hoped to find at least a pond at their destination, but they found none.
Carrying their rations and arms on their backs, the soldiers moved through seemingly impenetrable forests, in which they have to cut down some trees and shrubs to make way. They then emerge to dry plains where the sun mercilessly beats down on them.
Kony, who has waged a decades-long campaign of murder and the abduction of children without espousing any political ideology, in 2005 became the first person to be indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
