Uganda is a beautiful country situated in East Africa. It is bordered by Kenya to the east, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Sudan to the north, Tanzania to the south, and Rwanda in the southwest. 

    Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has had a presence in Uganda since 1979. MCC programs have been providing essential relief services, community development projects, education, and HIV/AIDS work through the Generations at Risk program and peace initiatives. 

    Uganda has been hailed for its fight against HIV/AIDS.  It has been used as a success story in the fight to stop the spread of the virus in other countries.

    Like many other African countries, Uganda has been plagued by a series of internal conflicts since it gained independence in 1962. It has had its share of coups and counter coups ushering in dictator after dictator. The current president Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 through a military coup overthrowing the then president Milton Obote. 

    Under Museveni, most of Uganda has been stable with the exception of Northern Uganda, which has been subjected to a cruel insurgency by a rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

    The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, who really does not have a political agenda other than to run the country along the rules of the Ten Commandments. The LRA has been synonymous with the words abduction, rape, murder, looting, mutilation, torture, and enslavement. 

    Uganda’s army, which has been sent in to quell the rebellion, has not been successful. It has also been accused of human rights abuses against those it is sent to protect.

     Human Rights Watch reports that “In northern Uganda, thousands of children are victims of a vicious cycle of violence, caught between a brutal rebel group and the army of the Ugandan government. The LRA is ostensibly dedicated to overthrowing the government of Uganda, but in practice the rebels appear to devote most of their time to attacks on the civilian population: they raid villages, loot stores and homes, burn houses and schools, and rape, mutilate and slaughter civilians unlucky enough to be in their path,” according to Human Rights Watch.

    The Northern Uganda conflict has also managed to embroil its neighbors in the conflict. Uganda has accused the Sudan government of supporting the LRA while the Sudan government has accused Uganda of supporting the Southern Sudanese rebels the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA.) 

    The LRA has been able to evade capture by the Uganda army because of their access to the borders in Sudan and Congo. The International Crisis Group reports that “peace processes in Sudan and Congo are being disrupted as the LRA crosses borders without response from the UN Security Council (ICC.)” 

    Though there are considerable efforts to bring an end to the rebellion, there needs to be a firm commitment by all the governments affected by this war to end it. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued five arrest warrants for the LRA commanders, including the leader Joseph Kony. The ICC has a limited mandate to pursue justice and therefore cannot execute its warrants.

     There have been some peace negotiations with the LRA led by Betty Bigombe who is a former Uganda government official. However, there has been limited success with the negotiations, and support from the Ugandan government for the negotiations has been half hearted.

    The atrocities in Northern Uganda need to be addressed.  One cannot turn a blind eye to the issues. 

    We should pray for the people of Northern Uganda who are affected by the conflict and ask for a peaceful solution to the conflict. We should also ask our policy makers to take a more proactive role in trying to solve the crisis and insist on a peaceful means. 

    The U.S. government is one of Uganda’s largest donors and should take a leadership role in pushing for a viable solution to the Northern Uganda crisis and bring an end to the suffering.

    There is a need for the U.S. government to take a stronger stance and support the peace process that is already in place. The United States should be able to encourage both parties to come to a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The atrocities in Northern Uganda need to be addressed. One cannot turn a blind eye to the issues.

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