THE US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, says she hopes drones will soon be able to see through jungle cover so they can find the African warlord Joseph Kony.

Mrs Clinton spoke of her hope in Uganda on Friday as she watched a small US-made pilotless plane the Ugandan military uses in Somalia to fight militants linked to al-Qaeda.

Hopeful ... Hillary Clinton is confident drones will help in the quest to find warlord Joseph Kony. Credit:Reuters

The US sent 100 special forces advisers to central Africa last year to help hunt Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a band of jungle-roaming militants known for kidnapping children, taking girls as sex slaves and disfiguring victims.

Ugandan forces are at the forefront in the hunt for Kony, whose campaign of terror originated in Uganda and who is now elsewhere in central Africa.

''Now we have to figure out how we can see through thick vegetation to find Joseph Kony,'' Mrs Clinton said at a military base on Lake Victoria shortly after meeting the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni.

Kony's atrocities were the subject of an internet campaign, Kony 2012: Make Him Famous, by the aid group Invisible Children this year. The US troops helping in the hunt are in Uganda, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Congo.

Associated Press