There is currently a truce while peace talks progress between the LRA and the Ugandan government.
This truce is fairly fragile, please pray that it will hold.
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For almost 2 decades a dirty war has been waged in the North of Uganda. Children are regularly abducted by the Rebel army; the LRA, and subjected to horrendous atrocities. They are forced to fight and commit terrible acts of violence on others, often their own friends or families.
The citizens of Northern Uganda live their lives in fear of these rebels; more than 1.3 million people, 90% of the population, have left their homes and land to live in Internally Displaced People camps where they are relatively safe, but where conditions are very terrible.
Each night, hundreds of children leave their homes to sleep rough and unsupervised in the towns where rebels are unlikely to attack, often commuting many miles on foot every day from their vulnerable villages and camps.
For years now lands have been uncultivated, education halted, and lives lived in fear. The Ugandan army is struggling to fight an army of children, forced into fighting against their will.
These are people like us, children like our own. And yet so many people in the UK and other western nations are not even aware of the situation.
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Courtesy of Thomas Morley and Exile Images - Click here to see more and to read their stories.
An estimated 20,000 children abducted since the beginning
of the war An average of 3 children kidnapped by the LRA every day last year.
Over 1.5 million people displaced from their homes 1,000 people die every week in those camps because of the war.
Hundreds
of children making the daily, dangerous ‘Night
Commute’ into towns from vulnerable rural homes
A history of daily acts of brutality
carried out on the citizens of Northern Uganda, often by
children forced into these actions. |
Watch a video report on the situation
Please read the accounts of people affected by the war, and those children who have been forced to fight and kill in it. Contribute to the forum, where you are free to have your say on any of the listed topics, and get involved by writing to your MP using the resources on the site.
These are some accounts from people affected by the war. Some of this is shocking and disturbing:
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Janet’s
Story
Taken
from UNICEF website:
“I was so scared. I tried to run away, but there were so many of them around us, and there was no way we could escape.
“I had so much fear, and I was afraid that I would get killed. I had heard that they take young children to Sudan and exchange them for guns. So I thought that would happen to me too,” continues Janet.
After spending six years in captivity, during which time she was forced into sexual servitude to an LRA commander, a pregnant Janet finally saw an opportunity to escape and did just that.
Reunited with her family, Janet and her daughter now live in Pabbo Camp, Gulu district, northern Uganda. The camp provides shelter for people who have been forced to flee their homes.
One of Janet’s brothers was also abducted by the LRA. He did not survive his captivity, dying of cholera.
Residents of Pabo Internally displaced peoples camp. Like 90% of the Acholi population they were forced to leave their home because of the fear of violence
Sarah’s
story
Taken
from a report from Medicins Sans Frontier:
Sarah and her family were forcibly moved to Pabbo Camp along with 33,000
other people from her hometown, which lies just ten kilometres away. The
people were confined into an area within a half-mile radius of the
military barracks, which were at the centre of the “protected
village”. “I was forced to come to Pabbo in 1996. I was 19. The
government forced us to leave our village. They said that if we stayed
that meant we were rebels and we would be killed. Even before the
government made us leave, the rebels had been disturbing us. They came to
my village and abducted ten children from my family. One was my brother
and the rest were my father’s other children from his other wives.
Later, two returned. The rest, including my brother, never came back. We
never told anyone. We were afraid that the rebels would come back to get
us if we told anyone. Soon after we left our village, the government
bombed it. I knew then that I would never see my brother again”
Sylvia’s
Story
Before
reading this I must strongly warn you that this is an extremely disturbing
account.
“All of a sudden, many young boys surrounded us. They all had machetes,
guns and clubs. We tried to run, but the boys stopped us and took us to
their
commander.
We were ordered to sit in front of him while the others lay down a set of
tools-razor blades, clubs, axes, knives, and guns—tools they would
eventually use to hurt and kill us. The entire group except me was ordered
to lie down on the ground face down. Immediately, upon the wave of the
commander’s hand, one boy picked up a stick and proceeded to pound each
one first in the back of the neck and then on their forehead until they
were dead. Unable to watch, I stood away. When the commander noticed, he
forced me watch as the boy beat my husband to death. Once he was dead, the
Commander ordered me to lie down next to my husband’s corpse and have
sex with him. He was so heavy that I could not even budge him. Right then,
the commander waved his hand again and I thought I would be the next one
to die. I knelt down and begged for mercy, reminding the Commander that
the same God had created us all. Then, the boy that had killed the others,
stood in front of me. He had a razor blade in his hand and he cut my ear
off. The commander warned me that if I cried I would get the axe instead.
I stayed silent as the blood flowed from my ear. The boy that cut my ear
was teased by the others who claimed he had not done it correctly. He
moved to my other ear and this time cut it properly off. Next he cut my
lips off. First he cut the lower lip and then the upper one. I was
bleeding so badly… Once my lips were gone, he started to pull out my
teeth one by one. At this point, I lost consciousness.
The next thing I knew I was being carried to a nearby hut. They ordered me
to take off all of my clothes. I did and sat there bleeding. The young
boys peeped into the hut and asked me if I wanted to die. I told them that
I did not want to die. They left me alone again for a little while.
Outside the hut, I could see them cooking and eating the cassava that I
had collected. When they were finished eating, I heard them praying and
saying that they had been cleansed and that nothing would happen to them.
Once they finished their prayers, I heard them ask the commander whether
they should cut my arms and nose off. To my surprise, he said that they
should not. I was ordered to come outside. I stood in front of the
commander naked. I felt so humiliated... He asked me if I would return
home again in search for food. I replied that I would not. He then told me
to go and be sure to tell the Amuka and the local radio in Lira that the
LRA were still around. With that, I left. As I walked away I heard a
whistle and the sound of many scrambling to get their guns. I was scared.
I began to run as fast as I could, praying that they would not follow me.
I finally reached a spring nearby the camp. There was a boy there that I
knew. He ran ahead to get some others from the camp. As soon as the rest
of the people came for me—I lost consciousness again”.
Silvia considers herself one of the lucky ones. She survived an experience
that many others have not. But the memory of watching her husband die will
remain with her for the rest of her life.
Simon’s
Story
Taken
from World Food Programme website
"In 2002, I was
abducted by LRA rebels from the Awere camp for internally displaced
people. My family had moved to Awere in 2000 after the Ugandan army told
us to leave our village of Dino because of rebel activity.
In the dead of night,
about 30 rebels came to the hut where I was sleeping with two cousins.
They ordered us out, tied our hands behind our backs and told us to remain
seated on the ground. They said they had plenty of bullets and they would
shoot us if we tried to run away. I thought they were going to kill us
whether or not we tried to escape.
I don't know where my cousins ended up, but I was not taken
to the Sudan. I operated from within northern Uganda. Every day we walked
from morning to midday. At midday we stopped and cooked cassava, beans,
wild leaves, and, on a few occasions, meat: chicken and goat meat which we
raided from villages. No pork, no lamb: LRA chief Joseph Kony forbade
them.
On my first day in
the bush, the LRA rebels smeared shea butter on me. They applied it in the
form of crosses on my hands, back and other body parts. The shea butter is
very powerful: it prevents you from escaping. Every time you try, you find
yourself moving in circles and going nowhere. If not that, your legs
simply fail to move.
I came across Kony
and his guards in 2004 when he crossed from the Sudan into Uganda. At that
time, his rebels had been scattered by the Uganda People's Defence Forces.
He had lost a lot of men and weaponry and was moving with a few guards.
His escorts took turns; no one was allowed to guard him the entire day. He
is a tall, lean man. He barely spoke.
On one occasion, Kony
was enraged because an old man in Lango speared an LRA fighter to death
and took his gun. He said the Langi were stubborn and unsupportive of his
campaign. He ordered us to go and discipline them by killing them at
random with clubs. I killed about nine people on that raid.
I was able to escape
the LRA thanks to a commander who sensed the situation was becoming more
dangerous and suggested that we flee in order to avoid being killed. We
packed food, clothes, an RPG, seven AK47 guns, grenades and 17 magazines
of bullets, and we started walking towards a place called Lugore.
It was around
midnight and we were frightened that civilians would spot us and alert the
military. When we arrived at Lugore, we hid in a garden and waited. When
the woman came to harvest in the morning, we told her to call someone of
authority so that we could surrender.
I have lived at this
centre since I fled rebel captivity two months ago. At the time I was
abducted, I was attending the Awere primary school. I hope to be able to
return to school one day soon.
The WFP food I eat
here at the centre has helped improve my life. In the bush we fed almost
entirely on cassava, and only in small quantities. I eat well here but
fear that will change when I leave. We are waiting for my parents to take
me home. I want to see my parents, but I am not sure there will be enough
food for all of us."
More
stories from people caught up in this conflict can be found in the Stolen
Children forum
Terrible
stories like this are shockingly common since the beginning of this war.
It’s not just the acts of savagery themselves, but the fact that it is
children who are pushed into these acts that is so appauling.
Children walk for miles, then sleep rough in the town of Gulu to escape the rebels who may attack their homes at night.
TAKE
ACTION
Write
to your MP:
Our
nation can help, it can put pressure on the Ugandan government to enter
peace talks when the opportunity arises. It can give aid and security for
the large numbers of displaced people in IDP camps. To get the address of
your MP, click here.
If you would like a sample letter to use, click here
Write
to the Media:
Let
the BBC, ITN or Channel 4, or the paper you read know you want to see more
about this situation published or broadcast. There are lots of
opportunities for them to do this, but we hear little about it. There
have been several Brits killed in this war, including Steve Willis, killed by the LRA in Murchison Falls Game Park. Shouldn’t this have
made our headlines?
Show
the Invisible Children DVD in your communities:
Invisible
Children is a hard hitting and well-made film showing the effects of this
war on people’s lives. It shows moving interviews with children who were
abducted, and the ‘Night Commuters’ who walk into Gulu daily. You can
order the video from the Invisible
Children website, or get in touch with me. The CMS
website also has resources for making people aware of
this situation
Please don’t forget the plight of the people of Northern Uganda. Don’t think of them as a far off people with far off problems, but as people like us, with children like our own being taken from them. If it was happening here in the UK or anywhere in Europe we’d put an end to it. Why is it any different just because it’s happening in Africa?
