The Daily Monitor reports that Democratic Party candidate John Ssebaana Kizito has pledged to set up planned villages and estates for people living in camps in northern Uganda to improve their lives. He said, “The current government has failed to improve people’s lives in the north for over 20 years, hence a great need to take over power from the current leaders”. Ssebaana was addressing a crowd at Aloi internally displaced people’s camp in Lira district on Thursday.

He said Museveni and his government were using the northern war to solicit funds from donors for their own benefit. Ssebaana said Museveni herded people in camps to grab their land. Ssebaana said the northern region needs a comprehensive rehabilitation programme to compensate for the lost years. Ssebaana said, “The war will come to an end under my government through negotiation. Only 20 years are enough for a serious government to end any insecurity,” he said.

Christianity Today has published an interview with Rory Anderson, senior Africa policy advisor for World Vision and friend of Uganda-CAN, on "what American Christians can do to help resolve the LRA conflict." Rory says, "This conflict can end. Just as the U.S. government took seriously peace inside southern Sudan, likewise this is a related conflict. There have been sustained advocacy efforts by American Christians around southern Sudan—the same efforts apply and need to happen inside northern Uganda. This type of advocacy brings change." Read more here.

Reuters South Africa reports that the Uganda's army said on Thursday it had arrested two soldiers over the shooting deaths of seven protesters and wounding of 16 other people outside of a barracks near a northern refugee camp. The shooting took place on Monday at the army barracks near the Lalogi camp, a temporary settlement in the north of the country housing people fleeing persecution from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Today's New Vision reports that Ugandan Security Minister Betty Akech has stated that any soldiers convicted of wrongdoing in the deaths of IDPs killed during a protest on Monday will be executed. Between four and seven civilians were killed by UPDF soldiers in the northern Ugandan IDP camp of Lalogi as they protested the death of a teenage boy who was killed Christmas night by UPDF soldiers who mistook him for a rebel.

Karoli Ssemogerere has written a powerful column on the Ugandan government's failure to protect its own civilians in the north and end the war - now Africa's longest running. He writes, "The year 2005 was supposed to be the glory year that ended all strife in the war torn north. Ahead of 2006, President Museveni announced that all IDP camps would soon be history."

He continues, "How much of Kony's terror and infamy is linked to absence of a sound civil defence strategy? Why else could an army that buys 500 vehicles annually falter at great human cost to apprehend a hopelessly outnumbered enemy fighting on foot?
History will also ask how an army that reached deep into the DRC in hot pursuit of the ADF, fail to wipe out LRA, or even detect the LRA's forays as far as Teso. No one knows if the children in the IDP camps care to hear about how many roads are paved or gullied, how fast the economy is growing when they face the omnipresent fear of being raped on their way home from a day's chores." Read more here.

Voice of America reports that the Ugandan military has claimed to have killed 20 LRA rebels in Pader district yesterday. Major Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the military, also expressed confidence that the LRA will be completely defeated within one year. His comments follow a declaration made by Pres. Museveni last week that the LRA will be defeated by this coming April. Kulayigye said, “overall, the picture in northern Uganda is that the Lord’s Resistance Army can no longer commit crimes, can no longer abduct, can no longer block roads, can longer lay landmines.” However, within the past two weeks alone, the LRA has carried out deadly attacks in southern Sudan and in Kitgum and Lira districts of northern Uganda.

Tragically, the death of 20 LRA “rebels” almost certainly means the death of children – up to 80% of the LRA’s ranks are filled by abducted child soldiers. Consequently, Uganda-CAN urges the Ugandan government to pursue a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Uganda-CAN also calls on the Ugandan government to restrain from issuing declarations of imminant military victory over the LRA, as such declaration have not only been misleading in the past, but harmful to trust and prospects for negotiations.

The Daily Vision reports that Ugandan Security Minister Betty Akech Okullo said today that the decision by several Western donor nations to divert aid from budget support to humanitarian aid in northern Uganda might alienate the region from the rest of the country. Okullo also accused Western donor nations of directly financing opposition parties.

The Daily Monitor reports that Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed on a joint operation against a group of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels hiding inside the vast country.

The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, told journalists yesterday that the joint operation would kick off soon. He said this while launching UPDF's “Progressive Report in the Campaign Against LRA Terrorism in Northern Uganda.” The report indicated that 17,000 formerly abducted children have been "rescued" since 2002. It also indicated that 80 rebel commanders have been killed including Brigadier Francis Kapere killed on Christmas Eve.

Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said the joint operation was welcome if long overdue. “I am very happy that Monuc has started doing something because this is exactly what we have been calling for. Now they are realising that the ADF is not only capable of causing havoc to civilians in Uganda, but they are doing the same in the DRC,” Kutesa said. On Sunday, about 40 people died in eastern DRC in a clash between the ADF and Congolese forces backed by the UN troops.

Aronda said the end of the war with the LRA is “near and certain." "It might take time, but the end of Kony is near and certain. We have not followed Kony, but where he is, he can only survive without attacking anybody. His best activity is a hide-and-seek game, but we shall get him,” he said.

Reuters AlertNet reports that Ugandan soldiers shot dead seven people and wounded 16 others who were protesting the killing of a teenaged boy by troops in the north, the army said on Tuesday. The army said it is investigating the shootings on Monday which happened outside an army barracks at the Lalogi Camp, a temporary settlement in the north of the country housing people fleeing persecution from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The army has been criticised for committing human rights abuses against civilians in the north.

AllAfrica.com reports today on the growing numbers of children, mostly boys, who are forced to fend for themselves on the streets of northern Ugandan towns. The boys have often been orphaned by AIDS and violence, and are as young 12 years old.

In the past extended families would care for orphans, but such support networks are increasingly being unraveled by the effects of the AIDS epidemic and by nearly two decades of war. This leaves orphans to fend for themselves, often by eating food from garbage dumps and committing petty crimes - which land them in adult jails. Read more at AllAfrica.com.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent in Gulu town, reports -

The UPDF yesterday reported that they have killed Brigadier Francis Kapere, the notorious LRA chief who masterminded recent attacks on foreigners in the region. Speaking yesterday after the death, Colonel Otema Awany, the army chief of the Operation Iron Fist intelligence, told Uganda-CAN that this was the best Christmas package he ever got.

Salon Magazine has published a powerful story about the children suffering in northern Uganda. Ken Davis, head of the U.N. World Food Programme in Uganda, told the press, "This is really a war against children."

The New Vision reports that President Yoweri Museveni has said by April next year, Kony will be totally routed from southern Sudan, and that the people in Acholi IDP camps will be able to go back home. Speaking on Capital FM’s Morning Crew yesterday, Museveni said the war in northern Uganda would have ended had donors not dictated on the defence budget. He said situations like this needed tough leadership.

Uganda-CAN believes such declarations of war's end by President Museveni have not only been misleading, but harmful to trust and prospects for negotiations. The following highlights such statements over the last three years:

30 September 2002: President Yoweri Museveni stated that the war would be finished before March 2003.

19 November 2003: President Museveni pledged in a BBC interview to kill rebel leaders before the end of the year.

4 March 2004: President Museveni stated that northern Uganda was not a disaster area.

16 April 2005: President Museveni told military officials in Lira to plan for “final push against the LRA,” ruling out a truce.

4 May 2005: President Museveni blamed the war on foreign donors that call for peace talks instead of his military policy.

1 September 2005: President Museveni said, “We used to fight Kony with one dimension but now we have a multi dimension. If President Omar Bashir gives me permission, it will not take 30 minutes to finish him.”

September 2005: President Museveni told American audiences that the war was over.

Today’s Daily Vision reports that the district chairmen of Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader districts have proposed that a reward be offered for the capture of Joseph Kony and the four other LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). They gave the proposal to officials from the ICC, which issued the arrest warrants in October, during a recent trip to Europe.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network wants to wish all its members and supporters a happy and peaceful Holidays!

In just six months, we have come a long way together. We helped catalyze a September Senate briefing on the crisis in northern Uganda. We organized a dozen of the more than forty October GuluWalks for the children of northern Uganda, gaining participation from tens of thousands of people (such as many of you!) and coverage from scores of news outlets, including BBC World News. In November, language that we helped draft to support a peaceful resolution to the conflict was used in a bill passed by the U.S. Congress. We recently met with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa and challenged her on our government's policy on the issue. Our volunteers have appeared on television and radio talk shows around the country, pressing for attention to this crisis. Last Tuesday, December 13th, hundreds of you made phone calls to the U.S. Congress, demanding that peace in northern Uganda be a foreign policy priority.

Yet until this tragedy is over and children in northern Uganda are able to sleep in their own beds at night, our work will remain incomplete. We remain resolutely committed until our actions translate into substantial change for people in northern Uganda. In 2006, we want to reach out to new groups and expand our membership to more than 5,000 people, building a robust constituency for northern Uganda in the United States. We want to develop a new advocacy coalition that unites people in Kampala, London, New York and Washington working for United Nations Security Council action for peace. With your commitment, and our friends at GuluWalk and the Name Campaign, we believe these lofty goals are possible.

Before we move forth into 2006, though, we want to thank so many of you for your efforts and actions this year in this struggle for peace in northern Uganda. You have inspired us and given new hope to a once hopeless situation. This season, all of us at the Uganda-CAN team want to wish you and your family a restful and peaceful holiday!

One final wish before 2005 comes to an end: mail off the letters at our Holiday Campaign page and send them to Ambassador John Bolton and Ms. Jendayi Frazer of the State Department.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent in Gulu town, reports -

A total of seven Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters were killed by the UPDF yesterday morning. Two of the rebels were killed southeast of Koch Ongako, while five were killed southeast of River Omee.

CNN.com reports today on the plight of children in the crisis in northern Uganda. Calling the conflict a “war on the future,” the article details the threats of abduction, disease, and starvation that children in northern Uganda face daily. Read more at CNN.com.

An op/ed piece in today’s Sudan Tribune outlines the challenges facing the people of southern Sudan trying to rebuild communities torn apart by decades of civil war. Efforts to rebuild communities and allow refugees to return home, efforts not even a year old, have been hampered by continued LRA activity in the region. The op/ed expresses fear that recent agreements between Uganda and Sudan to allow the Ugandan military to pursue the LRA in southern Sudan are to blame for the recent spate of deadly LRA attacks in the region.

Instead, the author urges the LRA and Ugandan government to accept the SPLM’s offer to mediate a peace agreement between them. Read more about southern Sudan’s efforts to rebuild communities and address the LRA insurgency.

The Sudan Tribune that Friday’s attack by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army on a civilian truck at Teretenye village near Ikotos in southern Sudan may be an indication that the rebels want to destabilize the peace in southern Sudan. The exact number of casualties has not been established because of the remoteness of the area, but it is known that some people were killed. Read more here.

The New Vision reports that the United Kingdom will reduce its budget support for the Government of Uganda, diverting the money to humanitarian relief efforts in northern Uganda.

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group has written a powerful Op/Ed for AllAfrica.com on the "Test Case for Accountability." He writes, "The stakes are high - for the ICC, Uganda and for international efforts at accountability. A comprehensive strategy is needed to ensure success. And success must be defined to mean the end of the insurgency, not just through prosecution of its leaders...A comprehensive strategy would involve two tracks: coercive and diplomatic..."

"The Security Council should also mandate the UN peacekeeping missions in the Congo and Sudan to pursue the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of LRA units stationed in these two countries...Given the threat to international peace and security represented by the LRA's three-country military posture, the UN Security Council should authorize targeted sanctions on anyone found to be providing sanctuary or sustenance to the LRA in any way...The second track should seek to rapidly enhance the incentives aimed at luring non-indicted LRA commanders out of the bush. Ugandan mediator Betty Bigombe should put forth a comprehensive Ugandan proposal for peace using the leverage offered by the ICC." Read more here.

The New Vision reports that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have accepted mediation from Sudan’s southern government, dominated by the former rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). SPLM spokesman Walid Hamid on Sunday said the LRA, whose leaders are believed to be hiding in southern Sudan, had responded through the Internet to an SPLM offer to mediate talks.

“The (southern) vice-President, Riek Machar, said they had agreed for the government of southern Sudan to mediate, though no further details were available,” Hamid said. The SPLM has had no direct contact with the LRA, he said. Senior SPLM sources said they had sought a face-to-face meeting with the LRA but were awaiting a reply. Read more here.

The Daily Monitor reports that the British High Commissioner to Uganda, Mr. Francois Gordon, on December 14 appealed to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels to make concrete proposals before the world can positively response to their call for peace talks.

"The region needs a ceasefire. You must stop attacks on roads, civilians and stop ambushes. This should not be seen to look like your usual dry season propaganda," Gordon said. He was speaking to the people of northern Uganda on Mega FM radio station during a one-day familiarisation tour of Gulu.

The Sudan Tribune has published a press release, supposedly written by the Lord's Resistance Army/Movement. The release decries the genocide and state terrorism perpetuated by the Ugandan government, claiming that most of the attacks in northern Uganda are perpetrated by UPDF forces. Read the full text here.

In the past, such press releases have been issued by LRA sympathizers who utilize the Internet to project a political agenda against the Museveni government. Many of these attempts have not been connected to LRA leadership, thus Uganda-CAN urges caution in reading this and other press releases.

Sweden’s Foreign Aid Minister announced on Friday that Sweden plans on withholding $5 million dollars (US) worth of aid from Uganda because of concerns that the Ugandan government is not facilitating a smooth transition to multi-party democracy. Instead, Sweden will give $3 million dollars in aid to UN humanitarian agencies working in northern Uganda.

Sweden's move is believed to have been prompted by the arrest and continued detention of Uganda's primary opposition party leader, Col. Kizza Besigye. Sweden’s decision makes it the fifth country, after Britain, Norway, Ireland and the Netherlands, to withhold aid from Uganda within the past year over concerns about democratic development. Read more at Xinhua.

The UN’s World Food Programme will cut food aid to IDPs in northern Uganda beginning in 2006. A WFP official in Kitgum said that the decision was based on a study that showed that IDPs have been able to farm more crops in the past year than in previous years. Read more at Angola Press.

United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland today briefed the Security Council on humanitarian crises in Africa. In his brief, Egeland discussed at considerable length the emergency caused by the activities of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), calling for the international body to take measures to ensure civilian protection and to support resolution of the twenty-year conflict, Africa's longest-running.

The LRA have recently expanded their activities to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and have continued attacks in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, displacing nearly two million and disrupting the supply of emergency relief.

"In northern Uganda, gains are being lost as security erodes," Egeland noted.

Approximately 80% of the rebel army is composed of child soldiers, abducted from their homes and forced to fight. While the government of Uganda passed an amnesty law in 2000, officially forgiving any of the rebels who surrender, Egeland argued that conditions in the region have prevented many from returning to their homes.

"Given conditions in the camps, it is not surprising that so many LRA choose to stay in the bush," he said.

According to the U.N., 1.7 million people, more than 90% of the region's population, are confined to protected camps, yet remain vulnerable to nighttime LRA attacks as well as health problems. The World Health Organization recently reported that over 1000 people are dying weekly due to the war and camp conditions. The Ugandan military has been widely criticized for its lack of capacity to defend the population, and many international observers question the government's commitment to resolving the situation.

Egeland offered policy options to the world body, calling for investigations into the sources of LRA support and criticizing regional governments for their failure to protect civilians. Although the U.N. Security Council has not yet placed the issue on its agenda, thus preventing any form of U.N. political involvement, the British High Commissioner recently called for a hearing on the crisis.

The Daily Vision reports that the British High Commissioner, Francis Gordon, has said that the war in northern Uganda will be discussed by the UN Security Council within weeks. Gordon said, “This will be the very first time the Council particularly discusses the LRA rebellion. We hope whatever resolutions they come up with will help quicken the end of the suffering of the people in northern Uganda.”

Uganda-CAN and other advocacy and humanitarian organizations, who have long called on the UN Security Council to end its silence on the crisis in northern Uganda, welcome Gordon’s statements and the hope they contain for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The LRA killed 10 civilians in southern Sudan in a roadside ambush on Friday, marking the latest attack in a period of intense LRA activity in the region that has lasted for several months. The LRA attacks have disrupted efforts in southern Sudan, which ended its own civil war earlier this year, to resettle refugees and begin rebuilding war-torn communities. Read more at Xinhua.

The New Vision reports that Otuke MP Daniel Omara Atubo has vowed to hold a demonstration if the government does not address the insecurity situation in the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the north. He said this at a security meeting at Lira district council hall on Thursday.

The New Vision reports that the army has designed a new strategy to combat Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who have split into smaller groups, ambushing civilians. The new strategy involves the army splitting into smaller units to cope with LRA tactics of moving in groups of twos, threes and fives.

Acting army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulaigye (right) said, “the new strategy aims at coping with the highly mobile smaller units of the rebels.” A group of seven rebels on Tuesday ambushed a civilian vehicle in Omoro sub-county in Lira district, killing six adults and a baby.

The army said LRA leader Joseph Kony was in the Nisitu zone along the Juba-Torit road with his deputy Vincent Otti. “We attacked a group under Kony’s command along the River Negedi, north of Juba-Torit road on Monday, killing one,” Magezi said. Military sources said Kony was being shielded by some Sudanese army officers around Nisitu.

Uganda-CAN is sad to share news of the tragic death of Ronald Opira, director of Watwero Rights Focus Initiative in northern Uganda. Ronald was a strong advocate and activist for action to ameliorate the suffering of people in northern Uganda. His organization has become one of the best known youth groups in the region and has strived to improve the lives of so many children and adolescents.

Ronald fell ill to malaria and typhoid fever. He had spent much of his time in the internally displaced camps exposing him to many preventable and curable diseases, but his passion for the rights of young people compelled him to dedicate his life to human rights and the potential of youth despite the dangers of war at every turn. Ronald was only 32 at his death.

Uganda-CAN expresses its condolences to Ronald's family and colleagues. We know that his legacy will continue on as the struggle for peace in northern Uganda continues.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent in Gulu town, reports -

After many interviews carried out by Uganda-CAN in Gulu Municipality, it is clear that many are dissatisfied with the recent LRA request for peace talks. The community believes the peace talks request may be a means for the LRA to access food as has been done in part years. Many seem worried about losing their harvests to rebels during the dry season.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent in Gulu town, reports -

Suspected Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed the LC1 chairman of Orwa B Ward in Kitgum District Thursday morning. Reports from the area say Mathew Obote, the local leader, was killed on Thurday morning by LRA rebels who also abducted two women.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent in Gulu town, reports -

Yesterday, UPDF 505 brigade commander Lt. Col George Magezi survived an ambush by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) along Gulu-Palaro road, just 25 miles north of the district in Aswa county. Lt. Col Magezi ran into three LRA rebels who were trying to cross the road between Patalira and Lugore. Meanwhile two LRA rebels were shot dead in Lira district. These two were identified as those who ambushed a vehicle in Lira killing eight civilians earlier this week.

On December 18th and 19th, citizens of the DR Congo will have the chance to participate in the first national electoral process in over forty years by voting on a new constitution. If the constitutional referendum is passed, presidential and parliamentary elections will take place before July 2006.

Although the referendum marks an important first step in rebuilding the war-torn DR Congo, some human rights groups say that a shattered judicial system, corruption, and persistence of rebel groups threatens to mar the voting process and the peaceful implementation of its results. Rebel groups and foreign combatants still control large swaths of territory in the eastern DR Congo, where over 3.3 million people are beyond the reach of aid organizations.

Uganda has had a key role in the DR Congo's civil war, which has raged on and off for almost eight years and resulted in the deaths of almost 4 million people. Uganda was involved with four other African nations in the first phase of the war beginning in 1998, and has since been accused of backing Congolese rebel groups and looting resources from the eastern part of the nation. Tensions between the two countries have also flared over the encampment of LRA rebels in the northeastern DR Congo in the past several months.

Uganda-CAN advocates a regional approach to the peace process in the Great Lakes region that encompasses the conflicts in northern Uganda, southern Sudan, Darfur (Sudan), and the DR Congo. Check out our policy platform concerning southern Sudan and Darfur, and stay tuned for more information on the Uganda-CAN website about the DR Congo and the regional peace process.

For more information about the DR Congo from Reuters AlertNet, click below:
DR Congo: Electoral Process at Risk
Crisis Profile: What's Going on in the DR Congo?
Chronology: War and Peace in the DR Congo

The UN announced yesterday the launch of anti-landmine project aimed at Uganda, Sudan, and Somalia. Over 2,000 people have been killed by landmines in the past five years in Uganda alone, and unless removed the landmines will prevent many IDPs from returning to their homes. Besides removing landmines, the project also hopes to assist the victims of landmine explosions and their families. Read more at ReliefWeb.

British leaders have expressed limited interest in raising northern Uganda at the Security Council, a move long advocated by Uganda-CAN as one avenue to expediting the resolution of the war.

In a written statement posted on the British Parliament website, the British Minister of State for Trade, Mr Ian Pearson, said, "The UK has supported previous efforts to raise northern Uganda in the United Nations (UN) Security Council. As presidency, the UK has invited Jan Egeland, the UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator to provide a briefing on humanitarian issues in Africa on December 19."

"A number of non governmental organisations have written to the foreign secretary, advocating for a UN Security Council resolution during the UK's term of office. We are currently considering their ideas and how we can most effectively continue to address the situation in northern Uganda," Pearson said.

The United States takes over the Presidency of the Security Council next February, and activists in the U.S. will push then for a resolution if one has not already been introduced.

Students from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri recently participated in a class competition. Each student in a Speech class donated $5 to a common pot; teams of students then presented about various organizations and movements, and the class voted on the most compelling presentation. Two students presented about northern Uganda and the work of Uganda-CAN, winning the competition and gaining a $150 donation for Uganda-CAN.

We extend our warm congratulations to Moreblessing Nkomo and Charles Wanyama for sharing with others the saddening realities of the crisis in northern Uganda. We encourage all the students to continue their participation in the campaign to see the war's end! These students are part of a long history of student commitment to social change, which has enabled the success of many of our world's movements for progress, from ending apartheid in South Africa to gaining equal rights for all citizens of the United States.

A former Anglican Bishop from northern Uganda visited the diocese of Southwest Florida last week and spoke to assembled congregants about the war in Uganda, decrying both local and international neglect of the crisis.

"The situation in Northern Uganda is far worse than Darfur in Western Sudan. The international Community has called what is happening in Darfur 'genocide.' But the magnitude of pain and suffering that my people of Acholi and Northern Uganda are going through is unspeakable," the bishop, Rt. Rev. Macleod Ochola, said.

Bishop Ochola's personal history is inextricable from that of the war. In 1987, while away from the country with his wife, Ochola's daughter was brutally raped by rebel forces. Before the Bishop could return to be with his daughter, she committed suicide. Struggling to continue his stewardship of Christians in northern Uganda, he was devastated again in 1997 when a landmine, allegedly planted by the LRA, killed his wife just six miles from their home in Gulu town.

Ochola has been a member of the regional peace delegation, and has met face to face with Kony and other rebel leaders. He decries what he views as a lack of commitment from the government to ending the war. "The Government of Uganda has shown unwillingness and lack of political will to end the conflict either by its preferred military option or by peaceful dialogue... I can speak of Government of Uganda’s deliberate frustration of Mrs. Bigombe’s mediation efforts."

In response to his speech, the diocese passed a resolution to be sent to President Bush and Kofi Annan, calling on them to recognize the tragedy of northern Uganda as "genocide" and to respond appropriately.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (formerly Global IDP Project) have updated their information on internally-displaced peoples and conditions in northern Uganda. Click here to read a full overview of the report.

According to their research, the situation endured by most of the nearly 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Uganda continues to worsen as rebel attacks have caused fresh human displacement. In early November a spate of attacks committed by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on humanitarian workers as well as renewed ambushes on civilians hindered relief operations to a displaced population heavily reliant on assistance. The attacks on international humanitarian organisations signal a change in LRA strategy as they mark the first time the LRA has directly targeted representatives of the international community. The attacks come in the wake of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the LRA’s top commanders. As a result of the presence of LRA fighters in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), many fear that the area of conflict and displacement will spread to Uganda’s West Nile region.

Eight civilians were killed Tuesday in Lira district during a roadside ambush by suspected LRA rebels. The attacks contradict recent statements made by Pres. Museveni and some Ugandan government ministers, who have dismissed the possibility of peace talks with the LRA partly on the grounds that a military defeat of the rebels is imminent. Read more at the Daily Vision here.

Since the LRA's second-in-command Vincent Otti phoned the local BBC radio station in mid-November to request peace talks, there has been much speculation regarding the commitment of both the government and the LRA to such talks.

Though the government initially welcomed the peace overtures, it has since expressed its skepticism. According to government spokespeople, seasonal food shortages and mounting military pressure on the rebel group have led them to request mediation, and, they argue, the LRA would only use the time to regroup without actually committing to peace.

Local leaders have mixed opinions. Elected district administrators in Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader have expressed agreement with the government. The Kitgum district chairman was called by Otti recently, and commented, “Otti sounded desperate. I told him that they (LRA) are not serious on peace talks and only use it to re-organise and continue killing of civilians."

Civil society organizations and religious leaders, however, disagree. "The people of northern Uganda cannot continue to live with a future of insecurity and suffering. While a glimmer of hope exists, we must grasp it and give it peace a chance," local civil society umbrella group CSOPNU said in a statement. "Let us not lose hope in trying: we must grasp this opportunity and give peace a chance."

Both the Uganda Joint Christian Council and the Ugandan Catholic Bishops' Conference have called for government engagement in dialogue as well. The Bishops further called on Museveni to initiate a national reconciliation intiative to heal Uganda's entrenched divide between northerners and southerners.

But with support for dialogue lacking from the international diplomatic community in Kampala, chances of government engagement of the LRA offer seem slim. The government will continue its military campaign, which it claims is having serious success in battling the LRA--with two to five rebels killed daily--in partnership with southern Sudanese forces.

Recent reports place the number of LRA at approximately 4000, however, and the rebels being killed are all abducted children. For these reasons, Uganda-CAN calls on the Government of Uganda to show faith in the possibility of a negotiated settlement and to take the LRA offer seriously.

Today's Daily Vision reports that Uganda's Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya has assured IDPs in the Lango sub-region that they will be able to return to their homes by the end of the year. Several weeks ago Pres. Museveni promised IDPs in the Lango and Teso sub-regions that they would be able to return home by the end of the year and that the government would provide them with six months of resettlement assistance.

Uganda-CAN welcomes the calls for resettlement, but urges the Ugandan government to also pursue an end to the conflict itself by taking advantage of the recent interest in peace talks shown by the LRA.

Reuters AlertNet reports that continued attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda have made it difficult for humanitarian workers to assist about 2.5 million people in the region to meet their basic needs, a senior UN official said on Monday.

Speaking at the launch of the UN's 2006 Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for Uganda, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Mogwanja, said since 2004, the region had "witnessed renewed attacks by the LRA on the civilian population and more recently even on humanitarian workers".

"Let me unreservedly condemn these attacks on innocent civilians and humanitarian workers as serious violations of international humanitarian law," he added. "I call again on the LRA and its supporters to immediately cease attacks on civilians and humanitarians workers and to release all the abducted children immediately." Read more here.

The Daily Monitor reports that the government has been asked to give security and other basic needs to the internally displaced people in Lira before they return to their homes from the camps. During an interview last Wednesday, MP for Otuke county in Lira district, Daniel Omara Atubo, told Daily Monitor that the people were waiting for communication from the government guaranteeing their safety.

"We have no problem with people going back to their homes but government must provide and guarantee their security together with the necessary requirements," Atubo said.
This comes after a recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni, that people in the IDP camps of Lango and Teso regions should be resettled back in their homes. In his statement, Museveni said government would feed the people moving back to their homes for six months while supplying them with planting materials and seeds.

We are hearing from many offices on Capitol Hill that they have received large numbers of phone calls, demanding that northern Uganda receive more attention and sustained action. This is great news!

Many of the offices for members of the Uganda Caucus are sending people to the Uganda Desk at the U.S. State Department. If you call the State Department, be sure to thank them for the work that has been done and mention our policy recommendations as written on our Holiday Campaign Web page. Click here to see those recommendations in a sample letter to Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Today is the international call-in day for northern Uganda, the first of its kind in the war's twenty year history. Right now, policymakers in the United States and around the world have decided that northern Uganda--the 1000 people dying every week, the children being abducted daily and forced into committing horrible atrocities--does not merit their attention.

The only way to change this is to show them that people around the world care, and that we are watching how they respond. Today, visit our holiday campaign call-in site, pick a member of Congress, review the sample calling script, and make a call! Get a friend (or 14) to join you.

Tomorrow as part of the Holiday Campaign, Uganda-CAN is asking people throughout the United States to call in to targeted members of the U.S. Congress, demanding attention and action to make northern Uganda a priority in the months ahead. Help us flood the phone lines of key members of Congress, demanding that the United States play a more effective role in civilian protection and peacebuilding in northern Uganda! Click here for phone numbers and more information.

The Daily Monitor has published an Op/Ed by Uganda-CAN's Peter Quaranto and Michael Poffenberger, titled "Peace Talks? Let's Talk Government Commitment to Peace." In the Op/Ed, we write, "However, many in northern Uganda and the international diplomatic community have questioned the government's commitment to support [Betty] Bigombe in peacefully resolving this war. There is suspicion that the government takes only those steps necessary to placate donor pressure; neglecting to really bring necessary resources to bear for civilian protection and resolution."

We conclude: "The government has a responsibility to not only engage this opportunity for a real peace process, but to exploit it to the fullest by presenting a comprehensive peace proposal...Ultimately, the mistake of the past has been a failure to put the people of northern Uganda as the focus of the peace process. Putting them at the center of the process would raise the stakes and would help keep the parties committed to the process. It would bring light to the reality that this is more than politics; it is about the lives of millions of children and their families struggling for hope and survival. In the coming week, let's hope the LRA and the Government of Uganda don't forget that." Click here to read the entire text.

The New Vision reports that the Ugandan army has described operations against the LRA rebels as forceful disarmament of the rebels. The northern-based army spokesman, Lt. Chris Magezi, said on Thursday, “This is no longer a war. It’s more of forceful disarmament of the defiant LRA rebels because they no longer attack our positions. They behave like the Karimojong rustlers who attack civilian positions.”

If the situation in northern Uganda is no longer a war, Uganda-CAN wonders why 1.7 million people remain internally-displaced. The Government of Uganda, especially if it is going to make such questionable public statements, must develop a comprehensive peace plan to address post-conflict challenges. Such a plan must address the large needs in northern Uganda for resettlement, rehabilitation and reconciliation.

According to the Sudan Tribune reports, the government of Southern Sudan has said that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has, in principle, accepted the peace initiative being made by Sudanese First Vice-President Salva Kiir to mediate between it and the Ugandan government in a bid to resolve the political problems.

Speaking to the press, the vice-president of the Southern Sudan government, Riek Machar, has called for the adoption of peace and dialogue with the LRA. He further called on the USA to remove the name of the LRA from the list of terrorist organizations.

He said that the Southern Sudan government has received response from the LRA through the Internet after the president of the Southern Sudan government, Salva Kiir, proposed three options of dealing with it, adding that it (LRA) has, in principle, accepted Vice-President Kiir’s peace initiative. Read more here.

Reuters reports that the U.N. relief coordinator urged the Security Council on Friday not to water down its resolution on protecting civilians subject to abuse, whether in Northern Uganda, Sudan or the Ivory Coast. The 15-member council, in an all-day debate among dozens of U.N. ambassadors, is considering a document on how to stop atrocities against women, men and children in war zones.

"This is not the time to end up with a weak resolution on the protection of civilians," Jan Egeland, the humanitarian relief coordinator, said. "It would be the ultimate irony when faced with the mass of information of tens of thousands of deaths, and tens of thousands of rapes, and tens of thousands of children being abused."

Egeland and Canada's Ambassador Allan Rock cited massive violations in northern Uganda. However, the Security Council has never put Uganda on its agenda, partly due to objections from Kampala. Uganda's U.N. ambassador, Francis Butagira, bluntly told the council it did not want the issue on its agenda now "that we are reaching the tail end of the rebellion."

The New Vision reports that the Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) has renewed its call for dialogue to end the 20- year Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel war in northern Uganda. Top leaders of the body made the call yesterday during a press conference at the UJCC offices at Old Kampala.

Top leaders said tomorrow they would undertake a National Launch of Prayer for Reconciliation and Peace in Northern Uganda at Nakivubo Stadium from 10:00am to 1:00pm. His Eminence, Jonah Lwanga, His Grace the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Luke Orombi and His Eminence, Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala have invited the public to the prayers. "We have dedicated every last Sunday for prayers for the northern conflict. This month will be a month of prayers for northern Uganda. We shall continue praying next year and until peace returns."

The New Vision reports that Betty Bigombe, the chief mediator between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government, has said that any chance geared towards peace must be exploited to the maximum by the Government. "The latest peace gesture is not out of the blue. I have been influencing the rebels quietly to come to the round table. The ICC knows what I am doing because I am constantly in touch with them," Bigombe said yesterday. Welcoming the rebels’ latest call for peace talks, Bigombe said they should be given the benefit of doubt, instead of being dismissed as, "Kony buying time to reorganise."

Uganda-CAN calls on the Government of Uganda to fully engage this potential opportunity to bring an end to the long-running suffering of people in northern Uganda. The Government should present a comprehensive peace proposal that addresses amnesty, reintegration and resettlement for LRA rebels, with the potential of third-country hosting for LRA leadership. Failure to fully engage this moment will give substance to suspicion by many that the Government of Uganda is not fully committed to protecting its citizens in the north.

Last week on Thursday, December 1, more than 2,000 people participated in walks throughout Germany for the lost children of northern Uganda. The producers of Lost Children, a documentary about the children of northern Uganda, led the walk in Cologne. In the coming days, Uganda-CAN's German partner, the Society for Threatened Peoples, will provide news and photos from the walks.

On December 9, the United Nations Security Council will open debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, and will consider passing a new resolution on the same subject.

The changing nature of conflicts and the realization that the greatest number of casualties in conflict are civilians sparked the Secretary-General to submit an initial report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict to the Security Council in 1999 and the Security Council to pass two subsequent resolutions. In the following 4 reports, the issue of the state’s responsibility for the protection of civilians, regardless of whether the violence is perpetrated by state or non-state actors, increasingly emerged as a critical focus of the Protection of Civilians agenda. The Secretary-General’s 2001 report highlighted not only the responsibility of the state to protect civilians, but also emphasized the international community’s responsibility in the face of a state that is unable or unwilling to ensure the security of its populations.

Uganda-CAN believes that an affirmation of the agreed responsibilities of the international community is an essential component of any new Security Council resolution on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. Such affirmation is critical to develop a robust UN that can protect civilians in chronic crisis situations, like northern Uganda.

Paul Rusesabagina called on the international community yesterday to fulfill the promises it made to never tolerate crises like the 1994 Rwandan genocide again by acting to stop the conflict in northern Uganda. Rusesabagina, whose heroic actions as a hotel manager saved hundreds of lives during the genocide were the basis for the recent film Hotel Rwanda, was speaking yesterday at Syracuse University in New York.

Rusesabagina commented that although the world promised "never again" to allow crises like the Rwandan genocide to go unnoticed, devastating conflicts in the DR Congo, Darfur, and northern Uganda have received little attention. He said "What is this silence? It is complicity. It can be called nothing else" - a powerful call to action from a man who witnessed first-hand the horrific consequences of inaction.

The New Vision reports that many leaders in Gulu are calling on the international community to arrest Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) top commanders, before organizing peace talks.

Briefing journalists yesterday at Nakasero on Otti's remarks about peace talks with the Government, the leaders said Kony and Otti should be killed. "Issuing arrest warrants for Kony and his colleagues by the International Criminal Court is not enough. If killing them is the only solution to ending the 20-year insurgency, then government should not waste time on having peace talks," Gulu LC5 chairman Col. Walter Ochora said.

"The UN has not played its role to end the war in the north. In other countries it has made interventions, rescued those abducted but this has not happened in Uganda. In Angola, Dr. Jonas Savimbi was killed. Can't that happen to Kony?" Ochora asked. Read more here.

The Greater Milwaukee Today reports that students at Waukesha North High School, upon hearing about the horrors of war in northern Uganda, are becoming authors in an effort to ease the troubled lives of many children in Uganda. As part of the Memory Project, students are writing and illustrating children’s books for children in war-torn northern Uganda. They hope Ugandan children will read the books while they seek shelter from a civil war in the country that has already taken 20,000 lives. The whole community is rallying together to make this small gesture of hope to communities in northern Uganda. Read more here.

The New Vision reports that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has denied links with Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader Col. (rtd.) Dr. Kizza Besigye, who is currently in Luzira Prison on charges of treason, rape and terrorism. Vincent Otti, the deputy LRA commander, speaking by telephone during a live talk show on KFM on Friday, said the LRA has never had any association with Besigye or any of his alleged commanders.

The deputy LRA chief on Wednesday called the BBC, asking the Government for a resumption of peace talks. During the talk show, Otti said the rebels had decided to call for peace because the time is ripe and his tribe (Acholi) was putting a lot of pressure on him.

Asked what they were fighting for, Otti said, "We are fighting for peace and freedom and the need for a democratic government. You have seen what is happening in Uganda. There is no true democracy and my tribesmates are being killed. People are in camps and it is not LRA which took the people to the camps, but the Government which started bombing villages, with helicopter gunships, giving AIDS to my tribe. Do you think that cannot annoy me?" Read more here.

The Daily Monitor reports that thousands of displaced persons in the districts of Pader and Gulu were left homeless after fire destroyed their huts in four different internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps. Read more here.

Mahmood Mamdani, a world renowned professor born in Kampala, has called on Pres. Museveni to initiate a process of reconciliation with the leaders of the LRA and Col. Kizza Besigye, an opposition party leader currently in jail on charges of treason and rape. Mamdani, who has written extensively about conflicts in Africa, said “When does the pursuit of justice turn into revenge seeking? This question, more than any other, lies at the heart of two issues that bedevil this country: a troubled political succession and the ongoing war in the north.”

Mamdani also called on the Ugandan government to disband the IDP camps in northern Uganda and urged the International Criminal Court to extend its investigation of war crimes in the region to include the actions of the Ugandan government. Read more at the Daily Vision.

Paul Ronan, Uganda-CAN's conflict analyst, has published a powerful Op/Ed in The Buffalo News, titled "We must speak for those who aren't being heard." Click here to read the Op/Ed.

Reuters reports today that Vincent Otti, the deputy chief of northern Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels said he would contact the government on Saturday via a top religious leader. Otti reiterated his willingness to face international justice.

In the telephone call, Otti said Catholic Archbishop John Baptist Odama would be told when and where mediators could meet the LRA, and called on the government to give them safe passage. "Peace will come in Uganda very soon if the government accepts," Otti told local KFM radio late on Friday. "If they do not agree to talk to us, then there will be big trouble."

After 19 years of conflict, Otti said the people of the north were now calling on him to negotiate. "They said we should talk this over so they go home in the village to dig. That's why I said I don't fear anything like the ICC," he told KFM. "Kony and I, we are the leaders, then we should lead them back home all, then we should be arrested."

In addition to Odama, who heads a multi-faith peace team in the north, Otti said the LRA trusted Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and former minister Betty Bigombe. He also said the rebels trusted Uganda's long serving President Yoweri Museveni -- long their sworn adversary.

Uganda-CAN calls on the Government of Uganda and the international community to seize this potential opportunity to bring an end to the war.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu district in northern Uganda has welcomed rebel interest in peaceful negotiations, reports AllAfrica. "Now we wait for your concrete step towards peace. We do not want you to continue to fight. Come into the open and transform your promises for peace in concrete actions," he said.

The Government of Uganda, however, has not been so welcoming. Uganda's Information Minister responded to the LRA call for peace talks by saying, "We are really not taking this seriously at all. This is not a new tactic."

Uganda-CAN laments the government's lack of willingness to consider this possibility as serious. We call on senior U.S. State Department officials to call Museveni to task for not seeking a peaceful end to the conflict.

Now on the Uganda-CAN Web site, become involved in our Holiday Campaign to give children in northern Uganda the greatest gift: Peace!

1.) Read the story about a special Christmas wish.

2.) Write letters to the U.S. State Department and U.S. Mission to the United Nations telling officials to address civilian protection in northern Uganda. Click here for addresses and sample letters.

3.) Call in to targeted members of the U.S. Congress on December 13th and tell them that northern Uganda is a forgotten crisis that demands their attention and action. Click here to take action!

4.) Make a holiday contribution to peace in northern Uganda by supporting the work of Uganda-CAN as we move into the next year. You can donate online.

Voice of America reports that the Ugandan military has claimed to have killed 20 LRA rebels in Pader district yesterday. Major Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the military, also expressed confidence that the LRA will be completely defeated within one year. His comments follow a declaration made by Pres. Museveni last week that the LRA will be defeated by this coming April. Kulayigye said, “overall, the picture in northern Uganda is that the Lord’s Resistance Army can no longer commit crimes, can no longer abduct, can no longer block roads, can longer lay landmines.” However, within the past two weeks alone, the LRA has carried out deadly attacks in southern Sudan and in Kitgum and Lira districts of northern Uganda.

Tragically, the death of 20 LRA “rebels” almost certainly means the death of children – up to 80% of the LRA’s ranks are filled by abducted child soldiers. Consequently, Uganda-CAN urges the Ugandan government to pursue a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Uganda-CAN also calls on the Ugandan government to restrain from issuing declarations of imminant military victory over the LRA, as such declaration have not only been misleading in the past, but harmful to trust and prospects for negotiations.

The UN today released its appeal for humanitarian relief funding for 2006. The highest ever appeal by the UN, the press release cites a wave of humanitarian crises over the last year that have called for more resources. Northern Uganda is one area benefitting from UN relief assistance.

“Unfortunately, many of these disasters have been largely forgotten by the international community,” said Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Egeland in the past has noted that northern Uganda tops the list of neglected emergencies.

"I do not believe we are asking too much," Egeland said. "We are asking exactly the amount of 48 hours of military spending in this world or we're asking for the equivalent of two cups of coffee per person in the industrialized world."

The Quaker UN Office today released the letter signed by twenty major international non-governmental organizations that was delivered to the United Nations Security Council prior to their recent trip to Uganda. The letter, available here, lamented the suffering caused by the war, layed out a series of myths about the war (presumably often used by the Government of Uganda) as well as the corresponding truths, and offered suggestions for questions that the Security Council delegation could pose to President Museveni.

Though the delegation reviewed the letter, their comments in a press conference in Uganda and their report to the UN upon their return lack any trace of recognition of the scope of the crisis.

A coalition of German advocacy organizations and religious groups have organized a nationwide GuluWalk to take place today in over 35 towns. The walk will focus attention on the plight of children in northern Uganda and urge the European Union to establish a peace initiative to end the conflict in the region. The Germany GuluWalk is the latest in series of GuluWalk events designed to raise awareness and inspire action concerning the war in northern Uganda, the latest of which included tens of thousands of people in over 35 cities on October 22nd.

The main walk in Cologne will include music and a vigil, as well as the producers of the film "Lost Children", a recent documentary that traces the lives of four former child soldiers. The participants also plan on distributing 9,000 postcards to be sent to the incoming President of the EU Council of Foreign Ministers, urging her to start a peace initiative.

Uganda-CAN congratulates the organizers and participants of the Germany GuluWalk for their contribution to international efforts to end the war in northern Uganda. For more information about the Germany GuluWalk and what you can do to help, contact The Society for Threatened Peoples in Germany at asien@gfbv.de.