Salim Saleh's new responsibilities in Lord's Resistance Army are sign Kony is weakening, according to general 
 
 Uganda's notorious rebel chief Joseph Kony has named his son as deputy leader of his Lord's Resistance Army, a guerrilla force infamous for its extreme violence, the country's army has said. 
 
 Salim Saleh, reported to be 22, is understood to have spent his entire life in the bush with his father's force, which continues to defy international efforts to hunt them down. 
 
 "Previously the son was in charge of the group providing security to the father, but now he has an added responsibility of field command," the top Ugandan general Sam Kavuma said. 
 
 Kavuma claimed it was a sign that Kony's control of the force had been weakened, with fighters now split into several autonomous gangs. 
 
 Long since forced from Uganda, the rebels roam remote forest regions of the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
 
 "The role of the son is an indication Kony has lost contact with most of his commanders, some who have been killed by our forces and others are in disarray, with the rebels becoming weaker," Kavuma said. 
 
 However, the force has shown itself adept at avoiding capture and continues to launch attacks despite being hunted by Ugandan troops with the support of US special forces. 
 
 Kony, who launched a rebellion in Uganda more than two decades ago, is wanted by the international criminal court along with fellow top commanders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers. 
 
 "Intelligence information collated from [rebel] defectors indicate Kony's son is the most influential person after his father," said Kavuma, who heads the Ugandan mission searching for the rebel chief. 
 
 Salim Saleh is reportedly named after the younger brother of the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, a top military officer and influential politician. ||||| Image caption Kony is one of the world's most infamous fugitives 
 
 US officials have cast doubt on reports that Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is negotiating his surrender in the Central African Republic (CAR). 
 
 A US State Department official told the BBC that some rebels had been in contact but Kony was not among them. 
 
 However, CAR officials later insisted that Kony, who is wanted for alleged war crimes, has been in talks with their government. 
 
 The US has offered up to $5m (£3.3m) for leads resulting in his arrest. 
 
 Kony founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda more than 20 years ago, and his fighters are notorious for abducting children to serve as sex slaves and child soldiers. 
 
 Analysis We have been here before. There were even better prospects when former Ugandan official Betty Bigombe made direct contact with Kony. What is slightly different this time is Kony is a shadow of his former self, reportedly in fading health, having lost many fighters and operating in a volatile region. In South Sudan, he does not have sanctuary - since Khartoum stopped support. A local vigilante group on the border with Uganda and CAR has been protecting people against LRA attacks. In DR Congo, a robust UN mission has just helped the local army defeat M23 rebels. This force could be easily deployed to help in the hunt for Kony. In CAR, near-anarchy makes it relatively easy for regional armies hunting him to cross the border and capture him. Armed gangs in the chaotic nation could also seek to catch him to claim the $5m bounty offered by the US. After two decades on the run, Kony is short of options. That he has reportedly talked of possible surrender indicates how desperate he is. 
 
 The US official also noted that Kony had previously used "any and every pretext to rest, regroup, and rearm, ultimately returning to kidnapping, killing, displacing and otherwise abusing civilian populations". 
 
 The LRA was forced out of Uganda in 2005 and since then has wreaked havoc in CAR, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
 
 Kony was on the verge of signing a peace deal in 2008 but insisted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) first drop its arrest warrant, which it refused to do. 
 
 On Wednesday, a CAR government spokesman told the BBC that Kony was in the country but wanted his security to be guaranteed before giving himself up. 
 
 According to AFP news agency, CAR leader Michel Djotodia, said: "Joseph Kony wants to come out of the bush. We are negotiating with him." 
 
 A US State Department official said Washington was aware that CAR authorities had "been in contact for several months with a small LRA group in CAR that has expressed interest in surrendering". 
 
 But later on Thursday, a spokesman for Mr Djotodia told the BBC's Newshour radio programme that the president had had a phone conversation with Kony, who was in the remote Central African town of Nzoka "with nearly 7,000 people, with his whole group, women and children". 
 
 BBC Africa security correspondent Moses Rono says this is not the first time that a breakthrough has been reported with the LRA. 
 
 But he says that Kony is now a shadow of his former self, reportedly in fading health, having lost many fighters and operating in a volatile region, with armed gangs keen to earn the $5m reward. 
 
 The African Union's special envoy on the LRA, Francisco Madeira, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday he had seen reports that Kony was suffering from a "serious, uncharacterised illness". 
 
 In April the Ugandan army suspended a search for Kony in CAR, blaming "hostility" from the government formed when Mr Djotodia's rebel forces seized power there. 
 
 Some 3,000 African troops, backed by 100 US special forces, have been hunting him and his fighters across the region. 
 
 Mr Madeira said the military pressure had kept Kony and the LRA "on the run". 
 
 Kony claims the LRA's mission is to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. 
 
 But he is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of rape, mutilation and murder of civilians, as well as forcibly recruiting children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves. ||||| Can you crowd-fund the hunt for a war criminal on the run deep in Africa's jungles? A Canadian adventurer with experiences in Afghanistan and Somalia wants to do just that: raise funds and take a small band of former soldiers to find Joseph Kony. 
 
 FILE - In this July 31, 2006 file photo, members of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are seen as their leader Joseph Kony meets with a delegation of Ugandan officials and lawmakers and representatives... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Sunday, April 29, 2012 file photo, the town of Obo, where U.S. special forces have paired up with local troops and Ugandan soldiers to seek out Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2006 file photo, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony answers journalists' questions following a meeting with UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland at Ri-Kwangba in... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Friday, April 27, 2012 file photo, Adye Sunday, 25, who was abducted when she was 13 by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony and forced to be one of his dozens of "wives" and... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Sunday, April 29, 2012 file photo, U.S. Army special forces Master Sergeant Eric, center, who would only give his first name in accordance with special forces security guidelines, speaks... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken in 2003 and released by Robert Young Pelton on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, Pelton sits in the presence of United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary members during a crossing... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken in 1996 and released by Robert Young Pelton on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, Pelton travels by boat along the Sembakung river on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. Adventurer Robert Young Pelton,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Robert Young Pelton, whose plan has already drawn criticism from a pair of Africa experts, is the latest to join a line of private individuals and aid groups who are trying to corner the alleged mass murderer and members of his Lord's Resistance Army. Kony remains elusive despite the deployment by President Barack Obama in late 2011 of 100 U.S. special forces to aid the hunt _ which is mostly carried out by Ugandan troops _ and the efforts by myriad private groups. 
 
 Among those efforts: 
 
 _ Invisible Children, an American aid group, created a web video seen by more than 100 million people last year that made Kony a family dinner topic and "introduce new audiences to the conflict, and inspire global action." 
 
 _ The Bridgeway Foundation, a Houston-based charity, hired a private company two years ago that specializes in military and law enforcement training to teach child hostage rescue techniques to the Ugandan troops tracking Kony. With support from the deep-pocketed Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Bridgeway pays an aviation company to fly a Cessna Caravan airplane and a Bell helicopter that are used to extract LRA defectors, transport injured people and broadcast anti-Kony messages from loudspeakers. 
 
 _ Invisible Children and Resolve, another aid group, operate a website called the LRA Crisis Tracker that collects information on LRA attacks _ often radioed in by villagers _ in Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The site allows U.S. military officials or aid workers to see where the LRA is concentrating its attacks. 
 
 The U.S. State Department said non-governmental groups and foundations "have played a critical role in bringing the LRA's atrocities to the world's attention and continue to play an important role ... to end those atrocities." 
 
 But while the U.S. military's Africa Command and the State Department both said they "appreciate the passion and commitment of Americans and citizens around the world to help the communities terrorized by the LRA," neither would comment on Pelton's effort. 
 
 Pelton, the author of "The World's Most Dangerous Places," says he has done work for U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan, and that he excels at finding people who don't want to be found. If his plan is funded, he would start looking for Kony, who is likely in the Central African Republic, early next year, he said. 
 
 "I am actually walking through the jungle myself with a stalwart band of like-minded people with all the right skills," Pelton said by telephone, adding that his group won't be looking to kill anyone and intends to comply with local laws. 
 
 "I'm not Wyatt Earp," he insisted. "I'm not gathering a posse to chase down Kony for the money. I'm trying to see if I can create a system that works." 
 
 By "works" Pelton means a system that can finally get Kony, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 on crimes against humanity charges including sexual slavery, rape and murder. 
 
 J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, said: "One really does not know whether this scheme merits ridicule or reproach. ... The notion of asking the public to contribute to sending a self-promoting adventurer and two filmmakers off to find an elusive warlord whom the militaries of several African countries assisted by U.S. Special Operations Forces have not managed to catch is risible, to say the least." 
 
 Pelton's $500,000 crowd-funding bid via indiegogo _ a platform like Kickstarter _ has raised only about $7,500 in two weeks. 
 
 The Ugandan military spokesman, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, said he had not heard of Pelton's mission, though he sounded incredulous when it was described to him. 
 
 "We wish him good luck. That's all I can say," Ankunda said. 
 
 The U.S. Africa Command says the LRA has "murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children" and that more than 380,000 people across three African countries have been displaced while fleeing the violence. The U.S. State Department is offering a $5 million reward _ up to $15 million total _ for help in the arrest of Kony and two of his lieutenants. 
 
 Ugandan Brig. Sam Kavuma, who took over earlier this year as the top commander of African Union troops searching for Kony in a wild, sparely inhabited region of dense jungle covering Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic, spoke well of Bridgeway's contribution, saying it made the mission more agile. 
 
 Others though, including those who are generally pleased with the group's role, say that disputes arise between U.S. troops, the Ugandan military and Bridgeway's private contractors. 
 
 Simon Mulongo, a lawmaker who sits on the defense and internal affairs committee of Uganda's parliament, said Bridgeway's private contractors are essentially "a mercenary force, and mercenaries have limitations." He said there were concerns about the chain of command and possible infighting. 
 
 The contractors carry light weapons and tracking devices, Mulongo said. Kavuma disputed this account, saying the contractors are not armed and that only one of them is still active on the ground in central Africa. 
 
 Besides its other assistance, Bridgeway is also financing a canine unit to find children abducted by Kony's army. 
 
 "What was happening was you just could never find the children in that vast of a jungle, in that thick of a jungle, and so these sniffer dogs would come in and they could smell where the children had bed down and help find them," said Shannon Sedgwick Davis, Bridgeway's chief executive. 
 
 Davis said she discussed Bridgeway's involvement with the U.S. government and United Nations officials and focused on filling gaps in the official anti-Kony mission. The U.S. State Department said it has no objections to Bridgeway's escalated role and that it seeks to coordinate with all such groups where possible. 
 
 Maj. Fred Harrel, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Africa Command, said the African-led, U.S.-supported mission has reduced Kony's operating space and influence. 
 
 "There has been an overall reduction in attacks, abductions, and civilians killed, along with increased defections from the LRA," he said. 
 
 But despite all the efforts, Kony remains on the loose. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya; Lardner reported from Washington.
– Joseph Kony has named his 22-year-old son as deputy leader of his Lord's Resistance Army—and top Ugandan general Sam Kavuma says the move is a sign that Kony's control over the guerrilla force is weakening. Fighters have separated into different autonomous groups roaming across remote parts of Africa, and "the role of the son is an indication Kony has lost contact with most of his commanders, some who have been killed by our forces and others are in disarray, with the rebels becoming weaker," Kavuma says, according to AFP. Salim Saleh is said to have spent his life fighting with his father's violent rebel forces. "Previously the son was in charge of the group providing security to the father, but now he has an added responsibility of field command," Kavuma says. The LRA continues to evade Ugandan troops and US special forces attempting to hunt it down. In November, there were reports Kony was ill and his reign might be nearing an end. In a report last week, the UN said Kony is hiding in a Sudanese-controlled area of the disputed border between South Sudan and the Central African Republic, al-Jazeera reports, and Voice of America adds that a UN official predicted Kony's capture is "coming pretty soon."