James Akena / Reuters

Ugandans from Lira watch the premiere of "Kony 2012," a 30-minute YouTube film created by the nonprofit Invisible Children. Lira was one of the areas that was ravaged by 20 years of Joseph Kony's rebellion.

Invisible Children delayed the release of a sequel to the viral video "KONY 2012" from Tuesday to Thursday, according to the organization's Twitter account.

It was originally supposed to air on April 3, but for an unknown reason the group has pushed the release date back to April 5.

Calling it “everything we couldn’t fit into KONY 2012,” Invisible Children will once again inform audiences about the use of children soldiers in the Lord’s Revolution Army in Uganda.

The video about LRA leader Joseph Kony has been viewed more than 86 million times since it originally debuted on YouTube nearly one month ago.

Read the original story at NBCSanDiego.com

The organization’s founders and CEO went on a media blitz promoting the documentary, and depended heavily on social media to increase viewership.

But Invisible Children also came under scrutiny for the “KONY 2012” film, with many calling it an oversimplification of the complex LRA conflict in Uganda.

Stuart Price / AFP / Getty Images

Joseph Kony, former leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, answered journalists' questions at Ri-Kwamba, in Southern Sudan, in 2006. Although the Kony 2012 was much critiqued by people who found it dated and overly simplistic, a former child soldier said he supported the video.

A group of human rights activists gathered outside the headquarters of the nonprofit on March 30, calling attention to issues they claim were omitted from the documentary.

Invisible Children CEO Ben Keesey released a series of video responses to the criticism, and later created a page dedicated to the widespread critiques.

The group has been trying to get back on its feet after an unusual turn of events when Invisible Children co-founder and filmmaker Jason Russell suffered a brief reactive psychosis. Russell was discovered by police in Pacific Beach on March 15 in various stages of undress and behaving in a bizarre manner.

Russell was detained and taken to a hospital. It could be months before he can return to Invisible Children, according to his wife Danica.

Brendan Mcdermid / REUTERS

Jason Russell co-founded the non-profit Invisible Children and directed "Kony 2012," a video that has 86 million views on YouTube.

Invisible Children volunteers and workers made little to no public appearances following the incident and the new video will be the group’s first major push since Russell’s hospitalization.

The new video will also include an update on its “Cover the Night” event on April 20 and will air on the Invisible Children YouTube page on Thursday.

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GULU, Uganda – Young Jacob Acaye’s declaration that he would rather die than continue to lead his life in fear has broken the hearts of the tens of millions of people around the world who have watched “KONY 2012,” an Internet advocacy documentary about the misdeeds of a Ugandan warlord.

But about nine years later – and just a week or so after the video became an online sensation – one of the most talked-about people of current days is a picture of anonymity.

In his hometown in northern Uganda, the 21-year-old seemed relaxed, and perhaps a little reserved, as he wandered down the street where he used to huddle under blankets along with up to 800 other children for protection from advancing rebels.

I stood with him, gazing down a busy sidewalk waiting for someone to catch his eye – to question him, to thank him or to embrace him. There's nothing.

We had traveled to Gulu to assess reaction to the 30-minute video, which has become one of the most successful online campaigns of all time. As of this writing, it’s up to 78 million views on YouTube.

But tweets, status updates and trending topics mean very little here. In downtown Gulu, it has pretty much missed many of those people who have been most affected by the bloodshed.

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Ugandans watch the premiere of "Kony 2012," a 30-minute YouTube film created by the nonprofit group Invisible Children, in Lira district, an area 234 miles north of Uganda's capital Kampala on Tuesday.

Western campaign
It shouldn’t be a surprise. With access to the Internet limited, very few people here have seen the “Invisible Children” campaigners’ call to make Joseph Kony famous, a move they hoped would, in turn, make him infamous.

After all, he is already despised in these parts:  His face and his name are known by everyone and have haunted this place for decades. It seems that everyone can name one of his victims – someone who was slaughtered, orphaned or abducted by his army of thugs.

Why make Kony famous? Video rubs some raw Ugandan scars 

In fact, many people in Gulu are far from excited by the campaign; they have heard it discussed on local radio and feel that it has its heart far from the dusty roads of rural Uganda. This is a campaign by Westerners, “the white men,” said one resident.

What divides opinion is whether that really matters. To Jacob it doesn’t, he would welcome attention from anyone, anywhere. To many others it feels like a patronizing challenge to national pride. “KONY 2012” doesn’t really feel like their campaign.

In Gulu, there are memorials to a series of massacres, the most recent in 2004. But while the legacy of fear created by a generation of violence certainly endures, in many ways this place has moved on. Confidence has grown with peace.

Moving on
Sitting around making small-talk, a group of men asked me to join them. Their conversation is about Kony, as often seems to be the case. Fueled by bravado and, perhaps, a little beer, they said it would be impossible for the warlord to return. They spoke of him only in the past tense, despite rumors that he was in the area over Christmas for a brief visit.

“We don’t expect anything. We don’t expect him anymore in the country,” said one man, who is convinced that Kony is in hiding in the Central African Republic or South Sudan.

In other parts of the town, some told me that there is no need for a campaign at all, as Kony’s men have moved on. Others don't want to hear his name. “Why re-open these wounds?” one man asked me once he learned of my reason for being in Gulu.

Some fear that too much talk of Kony might bring him back and risk their community's relative calm. Others worry that their homeland is being characterized around the world purely as a place of terror – “Konyland” as one aid worker described it.

Most of all, they wonder why the world has suddenly started to worry about them now? It’s not necessarily that they don’t welcome the attention, but many cannot subscribe to the newfound enthusiasm of the campaign’s supporters abroad. They have long tired of asking for attention and being ignored.

Acaye, however, is as passionate as when he was as a boy and believes that the video is important and valuable.

“Kony has not yet stopped killing young ones,” he said. “Kony has not yet stopped abducting people. Kony has not yet stopped forcing young girls into sex slaves.

“And that is what we are fighting for. We want it stopped.”

A charity whose tactics have been criticized is making traction online with a video, "KONY 2012," that aims to bring down the leader of a cult-like rebel army in Africa.

The 30-minute documentary, which has had more than 7 million YouTube downloads, was made by Invisible Children, a charity that wants Joseph Kony, head of the Lord's Resistance Army, to face trial in an international court on charges of using children as soldiers and other human rights crimes in Uganda.

A recent Foreign Affairs report challenged the tactics used by the charity and several others, saying they had exaggerated the scale of Kony's crimes.

The blog Visible Children, written by a Canadian college student, also questioned the value of Invisible Children's emphasis on filmmaking and social media advocacy and pointed out that it was advocating for western military intervention in Africa.

Jedediah Jenkins, the charity's director of idea development, told the Washington Post that the criticism was "myopic" and that the film reflected a "tipping point" by getting young Americans to care about an issue in Africa.

"The film has reached a place in the global consciousness where people know who Kony is, they know his crimes," Jenkins added. "Kids know and they respond. And then they won’t allow it to happen anymore."

Invisible Children also posted a response to the criticisms here.

On Tuesday, the UN refugee agency said the Lord's Resistance Army had launched a new spate of attacks in the northeastern region Democratic Republic of Congo this year after a lull in the second half of 2011.

But Mounoubai Madnodje, a spokesman for the UN's Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said the LRA was on its last legs.

"We think right now it's the last gasp of a dying organization that's still trying to make a statement," he said. Madnodje said there are only about 200 LRA fighters left. 

But experts on the LRA were skeptical about writing off Kony's force too soon. Mareike Schomerus at the London School of Economics said small scale attacks did not necessarily mean the LRA was getting weaker.

"It doesn't tell us anything because it's the same thing they have been doing for the last 25 years," she said.

The LRA, which emerged in northern Uganda in the late 1990s, is believed to have killed, kidnapped and mutilated thousands of people. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court and the African Union, which has designated it as a terrorist group.

In October the United States sent 100 military personnel, mainly special forces, to train and advise the forces fighting against the LRA.

This article includes reporting by msnbc.com staff and Reuters.

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