Uganda: yet another humanitarian crisis

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy returned from Uganda recently and declared "Uganda is home to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. HIV/AIDS is spreading in the north at an alarming rate and basic literacy is in decline."
Uganda has been involved in a civil war for over 18 years, between the military government lead by Yoweri Museveni and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), of which about 80 to 90 percent of whose soldiers are abducted children (more than 30 000 children over the 18 years). The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, wants to replace the Ugandan government with a theocracy based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
According to UNICEF, the situation in northern Uganda has deteriorated sharply since 2002, when the Ugandan government vowed to wipe out the LRA leadership by force if necessary: 'Operation Iron Fist'. The number of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and those in dire need of humanitarian assistance has increased from 800 000 to over 1.6 million in just two years, according to the International Rescue Committee, making Uganda Africa's fourth largest displaced population after Sudan, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 10 000 children have been abducted since June 2002 - the highest number since the war began. The abducted children are forced to fight and commit atrocities, and are subjected to sexual violence and sexual slavery.
Also in 2002, Uganda and Sudan signed a bilateral agreement giving the Ugandan army access to southern Sudan where LRA is believed to be operating from, linking these two regions both undergoing humanitarian crisis. Kony is believed to be hiding somewhere in Sudan. With very little break in between, the LRA continues to kill, rape and abduct children. In February 2004, the LRA killed more than 300 internally displaced people in a camp in Barlonyo, near Lira town, according to the UN news agency, IRIN.
The military junta, led by Museveni, is no better, going as far as to commit atrocities against villagers believed to harbour or aid LRA fighters. In April 2004, Human Rights Watch reported that torture is endemic in Uganda's military and security forces. Furthermore, out of the 26.4 million people living in Uganda, about 38 percent live below the poverty line, according to CARE.

This post was inspired by Mandisi Majavu's piece from ZNet