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Summary: The protracted civil war in northern Uganda has ravaged the region for 19 years, at one point leaving up to 1.6 million people homeless, skyrocketing malnutrition rates among children, and costing more than $100 million per year. This report (2nd edition) documents the impact of the war in northern Uganda, where more than 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to work as soldiers and sex slaves.
This 2nd edition of the report includes new information about prospects for peace. The report argues that the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Sudan increases the opportunity for negotiations and multi-lateral engagement on northern Uganda. The report also finds that the rates of HIV infection total nearly 12 percent in the war-affected region, nearly double the rest of the nation, which has been acclaimed by AIDS experts as one of the few in sub-Saharan Africa able to reduce transmission of the AIDS virus. "The children of northern Uganda have become pawns to be pitied in a military and political struggle for power between the government and the army of a warlord who manipulates traditional beliefs with Islam and Christianity into a spiritual crusade of murder and mutilation," says Rory E. Anderson, World Vision Senior Policy Advisor for Africa and co-author of the report. That warlord, Joseph Kony, who leads the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), trains children to maim and torture other children and civilians. Kony believes that he is fulfilling a religious mandate to create a government based on the Ten Commandments. Fear of being captured by Kony's "soldiers," has led upwards of 25,000 children to become "night commuters," fleeing their rural homes each night to sleep in local cities' bus stations, storefronts and on the streets, then head directly to school the next morning. Moreover, malnutrition rates among children range from 7 to 21 percent. The HIV infection rate is even more disturbing, Anderson says. Among deaths in the region analyzed by World Vision, AIDS was the leading cause of mortality, constituting 69 percent of deaths in Gulu, one of the largest cities in the region. This is three times the rate of death directly related to the civil war between the LRA and the Ugandan government. "There has been a collapse of the regions' health care system, due to the civil war, historic neglect of the area and the flight of many health care workers," Anderson says. "As a result, the majority of people are unable to get information on preventing HIV infection, or testing and treatment, and all these factors contribute to HIV rates double that of Uganda's national average." Other findings include: more than 80 percent of LRA soldiers are abducted child soldiers; Given all of the challenges, there has been recent progress made by former Ugandan parliamentarian Betty Bigombe in communicating with the LRA. For the first time in ten years, there is a chance to secure face-to-face meetings with Kony and to begin the process of negotiations. However, if not managed properly, the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation and pending issuance of indictments is a complicating factor that could potentially threaten this opportunity.
Lack of substantive high-level action by the international community has led to "global indifference" to the conflict; and
The Ugandan government should undertake necessary reforms to reduce corruption within its military, while the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and others should pressure the government of Sudan to stop supporting and sheltering Kony and the LRA within southern Sudan.