Building on over 30 organizations from Uganda and around the world uniting this week in a message of support for ongoing efforts to salvage northern Uganda's peace process, Resolve Uganda is asking individuals to add their names to this impressive list. The goal is to get 10,000 signatures before tomorrow when the chief mediator and local leaders are scheduled to meet with LRA leader Joseph Kony. Click here to sign and share this petition with your friends, so that northern Ugandan leaders know they have the support of people around the world who still believe that peace is possible.

The ENOUGH Project has released its latest report, titled "A New Strategy for Peace in Northern Uganda and the LRA." They write, "LRA leader Joseph Kony’s failure to sign a peace deal in April drove a nail into the coffin of the Juba peace process—a process that is grinding to an unsuccessful end. The talks have certainly contributed to northern Uganda’s current state of relative peace and created a mechanism to address tensions between the people in the North and the southern-dominated government in Kampala. But without real leverage and without a direct channel of negotiations to Kony himself, the LRA leader has exploited this last year of negotiations..."

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LRA leader Joseph Kony is expected to meet in person this Saturday with chief peace mediator Riek Machar and local leaders from northern Uganda. Meanwhile, an LRA delegation has been attending a workshop in Kampala with Uganda’s Principal Judge Justice James Ogoola, as well as traditional and local leaders. Speaking on Voice of America, the Government's lead negotiator Ruhakana Rugunda said, "There have been consultations over the implementation of accountability and reconciliation. And this has necessitated the workshop between the traditional leaders from the conflict-affected areas plus the leadership of the judiciary to see how the legal system in Uganda and the traditional conflict resolution system will be used in order to implement the agreement that has been signed on accountability and reconciliation." He called on Kony to take advantage of the remaining window of opportunity and sign the final agreement.

The Survey of War-Affected Youth (SWAY) has released a major research paper, The State of Female Youth in Northern Uganda. Building on interviews with hundreds of female youth in northern Uganda, the report contributes greatly to understanding how war has affected female youth in northern Uganda, using these findings to provide concrete recommendations on how the Ugandan government and humanitarian organizations can generate better services for them.

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The UN Secretary-General's April 2008 report on Sudan reveals that LRA attacks on civilians in the southern half of the country have been on the rise in recent months. It also states that LRA rebels responsible for the attacks are likely splinter groups operating outside Kony's direct authority. The existence of LRA splinter groups in south Sudan, as well as difficulty concretely verifying responsibility for alleged LRA attacks in eastern DR Congo and southeast Central African Republic (CAR), raises serious questions about what effect a broken chain-of-command within the LRA could have on the Juba peace process and prospects for demobilizing the LRA.

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A report released this week by the humanitarian group AVSI brings to light the experiences of individuals in Acholiland as they move out of the camps, and return to, or towards, their homes. The report examines the complexity of this movement between camps, transition sites and original home areas as people struggle to rebuild their communities and livelihoods in the midst of an uncertain peace process. Read the full report here.

ReliefWeb has published the press release about the global NGO statement released today. It reads: As Ugandan civil society leaders meet to clarify transitional justice mechanisms in advance of their scheduled May 10th meeting with Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony, NGOs from around the world have united in a message of support for local efforts to salvage the peace process to end northern Uganda’s 22-year war. They are calling for patient and persistent engagement to ensure that humanitarian progress achieved during the Juba negotiations is sustained.

"Over one million displaced northern Ugandans continue to face the difficult task of trying to create a life in the absence of peace and in fear of a return to violence," says the statement released today by more than thirty humanitarian, faith-based and civil society organizations from Brussels, Geneva, Gulu, Kampala, London, New York, Oslo, Pader, Toronto and Washington DC.

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