More than 50,000 people in cities around the United States walked and slept in solidarity with the "night commuters" of northern Uganda on Saturday night. Reports from the various sites are still coming in, but news sources across the country are reporting on the historic event. At each event, people wrote letters to President Bush and their U.S. Senators calling for high-level U.S. engagement to help end this war. Check out two reports of events at Kentucky's WKYT and The Chicago Tribune.

Tomorrow, more than 50,000 people across the United States will participate in the Global Night Commute to call on U.S. leaders to make peace in northern Uganda a priority. This will be a historic day, and if you haven't already, sign up now!

Coinciding with the GNC, there are numerous articles about northern Uganda in local newspapers across the country. Read one in The Badger Herald and The Columbia Missourian.

Over the last year, more than 1,000 people have joined the Uganda Conflict Action Network as we call on our world's leaders to make peace in northern Uganda a priority. Here are four steps you can take right now to help end this war:

1.) SIGN UP and join the rapidly growing network of people working for peace in northern Uganda by simply writing your email address in the box to the right.

2.) PARTICIPATE in our letter writing campaign to the new U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, urging him to make peace in northern Uganda a priority.

3.) DONATE to Uganda-CAN to help us continue our work for peace.

4.) Visit our partners GuluWalk and join their grassroots movement.

A former child soldier and sex slave for a Ugandan terrorist group was lauded by members of Congress yesterday for surviving her ordeal to tell her story 10 years later before the House of Representative international relations subcommittee. "It is truly a testament to you that you are so remarkably poised and strong," Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican, told Grace Akallo, 26. More than 80 people crammed into a House hearing room to hear her. She asked the United States to pressure Uganda to do more to end a civil war that has engulfed northern Uganda, southern Sudan and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to mobilize the international community. Read more at The Washington Times.

Following Wednesday's Congressional Hearing on northern Uganda, chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Retired Anglican Bishop of Gulu Baker Ochola has written an open letter to the Congressman, expressing his belief that while the LRA are certainly terrorizing the population in the region, the government of Uganda is also culpable for the terror due to its neglect. Check back later for notes on the hearing, and read the Bishop's letter by clicking below.

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United Nations peacekeepers are investigating reports that Ugandan soldiers crossed into neighboring DR Congo in pursuit of rebels on Wednesday and clashed with Congolese troops, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday. Security sources in Kinshasa said Ugandan soldiers clashed with the Congolese army near the town of Aba, in the remote northeastern frontier with Uganda and Sudan. The Ugandan army has roundly denied the claims. Reports of UPDF fighting come a week after Uganda's Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi proposed to the UN Security Council last Wednesday that his troops be allowed to enter Congo to pursue the rebels. Read more at The Monitor.

The Uganda-CAN Interview Series seeks to emphasize local perspectives on peace efforts and encourage debate about important issues related to the conflict in northern Uganda. In our second interview, done in collaboration with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa, we spoke with Geoffrey Oryema, the founder and director of the Acholi Youth Leadership Program (AYLP) in Gulu. The AYLP seeks to sensitize the Acholi community about the problems Acholi youth face and to empower youth to address and overcome the challenges of living in a society torn by over twenty years of war. Click below to read the interview or download a pdf version of it.

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The Archbishop of northern Uganda, John Baptist Odama said Thursday that the security situation, especially in Acholi sub-region, is not ripe and does not warrant people to go back to their villages. "The security situation here is not yet ripe at all. Of recent, there have been lots of incidents by the Lord's resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts," he said. Read more at The New Vision.

Uganda-CAN student-activists at the University of Notre Dame organized a mock trial Tuesday in which world leaders were put on trial for failed responsibility to address the 20-year-old crisis in northern Uganda. Leaders put on trial included Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, U.S. President Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. More than 50 people turned out to hear the cases against these world leaders. In conclusion, the group called on everyone to take responsibility to end this war: "Take the steps to make 2006 the historic year as the last for the crisis in northern Uganda."Read more at the Notre Dame Observer.

Today, the Oprah Show will feature a segment on the plight of children in northern Uganda. The segment will include the filmmakers of Invisible Children, who are organizing the Global Night Commute this coming Saturday, April 29. If you haven't already, sign up now to participate in the GNC!

Within his first month in the country, new U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Steven Browning scheduled a week-long visit to northern Uganda and witnessed first-hand the effects of the war. This visit is a sign of the growing concern amongst policymakers about the gravity of this crisis. Join Uganda-CAN in thanking Ambassador Browning for his visit and asking for his leadership to help end the suffering of the people of northern Uganda. Click here now to write the Ambassador!

The UN Mission in DR Congo reports that the northern Uganda army spokesman Chris Magezi reported that over 100 rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been killed by the government troops since last April. He said during the operation the army captured 79 sub-machine-guns (SMGs) with 208 magazines and 1,031 rounds of ammunitions, and two G2 machine guns with 82,692 rounds of ammunitions. Magezi said the UPDF registered three casualties: one in direct combat, another drowned in a river and the other died when he drank contaminated water during the military operations. He said UPDF's major success against the LRA in southern Sudan explained why LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony fled southern Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read more at the MONUC Web site.

Last month the Ugandan government and media headlines announced that the war in northern Uganda was 'finished' and that the process of IDPs returning to their homes would begin immediately. Recently UPDF 4th division commander Brig. Nathan Mugisha said, "[LRA leader Joseph] Kony and his men have been wiped out. Kony has no hope of ever terrorising the people". However, the real implications of the improving security situation in northern Uganda and return of some IDPs to their homes in recent weeks has been muddled by media and government reports that have ignored the persistent ability of the LRA to destabilize the region.

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In the past week 27 people in Kitgum district in northern Uganda have fallen ill with cholera, apparently catching the disease from travelers from southern Sudan. 1.5 million people live in crowded IPD camps with deplorable sanitation facilities in northern Uganda, threatening the possibility of an even larger outbreak. Read more at The People's Daily.

Foreign ministers from nations in Africa's Great Lakes region met Friday and called for the United Nations and African Union to place sanctions on leaders of rebel groups destabilizing the area, including leaders of the LRA. Many of the rebel groups, including some LRA rebels, are hiding in the DR Congo's eastern region and threatening to upset efforts to end almost a decade of civil war and lawlessness there. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

A GuluWalk in Buffalo, NY that was organized by Uganda-CAN, GuluWalk, and local community members on April 8th has received coverage in the Ugandan newspaper The Monitor. Read the article here.

A documentary on northern Uganda titled Uganda Rising, produced by Canadians, will make its world premiere in Toronto, Canada on 28 April to 7 May 2006. "We are thrilled that Uganda Rising was selected to premiere at this renowned international festival [Hot Docs]," the film's producer Alison Lawton said. The film includes an interview with President Yoweri Museveni as well as human rights experts and foreign policy experts like Ms Betty Bigombe, the chief peace negotiator between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. Read more at African News Dimension.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network will soon launch a North American Speakers Bureau for northern Uganda. If you have visited, worked in or just know a great deal about northern Uganda and would be willing to speak about the crisis, please email Alison at ajones@ugandacan.org. Uganda-CAN will compile a list of speakers throughout the continent and then place it on our Web site. The time has come to empower and reinvigorate the many voices across this continent that know the people of northern Uganda and can be silent no longer about their continued suffering.

Next Wednesday, Capitol Hill will host both a press conference and hearing on northern Uganda. At 11:30 in the Cannon House Office Building Terrace, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ) and World Vision's Rory Anderson will speak about the crisis. At 2:00 in Room 2200 of the Rayburn Building, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations will hold a hearing on the suffering of children in northern Uganda. Witnesses will include Defense Minister Amama Mbabazi and Grace Akello, former abducted child soldier of the LRA.

Uganda has asked the United Nations to allow its troops re-enter the Democratic Republic of Congo to pursue rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) holed up in Garamba National Park. Addressing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi said the LRA were regrouping in the DR Congo and kidnapping, raping and recruiting children. Mbabazi told the UN Security Council he knew the LRA were operating in the Garamba National Park in DR Congo and in Sudan between Juba and Yei, their original base. Mbabazi appealed to UN peacekeepers in Congo and Sudan to help capture LRA leaders, four of whom, including Joseph Kony, have been indicted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague as war criminals. Read more at The Daily Monitor.

On April 29th, Invisible Children is sponsoring a Global Night Commute in 130 U.S. cities. Similar to the GuluWalks of last October, these "night commutes" will have people from all across the country walking and sleeping outside in solidarity with the children of northern Uganda. Click here to join what we hope will be a historic day!

Southern Sudanese officials have offered to mediate between the Ugandan government and rebels who have been fighting it for 19 years, a Sudanese official said on Thursday. "We are in the process of bringing the two together," Riek Machar, vice president of the autonomous southern Sudan government, said in a telephone interview from the southern capital, Juba. Ugandan officials, however, said they doubted the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, a brutal force with no clear political agenda, was ready for peace talks. Read more at South Africa's Independent Online.

The Uganda People's Congress (UPC) has called for the African Union (AU) to take over peace-keeping operations in northern Uganda. Read more at The New Vision.

Since hearing two weeks ago about potential cuts in USAID funding to northern Uganda, Uganda-CAN has made inquiries. From our investigation, we recognize that the Office of Foreign Development Assistance (OFDA) has expertise and quick reaction when responding to crisis areas around the world. Yet, we believe OFDA can, with the will of the U.S. Congress, increase its response to the crisis in northern Uganda. At this time, it is unclear what OFDA funding is available for northern Uganda is the 2006 fiscal year. We urge Ambassador Randall L. Tobias of USAID to make the crisis in northern Uganda a priority, appoint at least one full-time OFDA representative for Uganda and allocate greater financial resources to save lives and end this crisis.

Reports from the ground in Lango and Teso regions of northern Uganda indicate that there are significant problems with government efforts to encourage IDPs to return home from displaced person's camps there. Though plans to return IDPs to their homes have been commended in the press, many IDPs themselves seem to be poorly informed of these efforts. Also, many IDPs remain concerned about the security situation in Lango and Teso (including concern over recent murders and abductions) despite government proclamations that the regions are safe from LRA attack. Security specialists are still monitoring LRA activity in Apac district in Lango, and were monitoring LRA activity in Lira district, also in Lango, only weeks ago.

A report released by the Gulu district education officer reveals that the educational system in Gulu district in northern Uganda is failing to meet the educational needs of the children there. The teacher to student ratio is 1:58, and over 25,000 children do not attend school at all. Also, only 65 percent of students finish primary (elementary) school. Read more at AllAfrica.com.

The number of children forced to "night commute" between unsafe homes in the countryside to town centers each night has fallen in recent months, according to UN reports. The number of night commuters in Gulu town center has dropped to about 6,500. However, an article in The New Vision implied that the total number of night commuters in northern Uganda has dropped to 6,500, when in fact thousands more children night commute in Kitgum and Pader districts in northern Uganda. Read more at The New Vision.

Today, Security Council Report, an independent NGO based at Columbia University, published an Update Report on Uganda.

The report notes the increased momentum for Security Council action on the LRA crisis, citing specific calls for the establishment of a Panel of Experts to determine the sources of LRA support as well as for the UN forces in Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Sudan to arrest LRA leaders.

The report comes ahead of today's planned briefings of the Security Council by Uganda's Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, as well as the expected release of a report on the matter by Secretary General Kofi Annan on April 24th. No immediate Council decisions are expected, but the humanitarian crisis, the security threats presented by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the cross border regional aspects and the implications for UN Peacekeeping Operations in neighbouring Sudan and DRC, will all receive increased attention and discussion at the UN in coming weeks. Click here to view the report on the UN website.

The Foreign Minister for Uganda will brief the UN Security Council on the situation in northern Uganda tomorrow morning. Uganda-CAN hopes the Security Council will take steps to play an effective role in ending the misery in northern Uganda.

Parliament yesterday passed the Amnesty Amendment Bill 2003, giving authority to the House to approve names of insurgents and individuals to be excluded from government pardon. The Minister of Internal Affairs said last week the Bill would bring Uganda into tandem with the International Criminal Court which last year indicted the five top leaders of the LRA accused of committing atrocities against innocent people. However, many in Parliament opposed the bill as a hindrance to peaceful resolution of the 20-year war. Read more at The Daily Monitor.

Hundreds of people displaced by the war in northern Uganda will begin returning to their villages today. The army announced yesterday that internally-displaced peoples mainly in the Lango and Teso sub-regions will walk home. While people wish to return home, MPs from the two districts have expressed fears of mismanagement and insecurity. Further, the Defense and Army spokesman Major Felix Kulayige said yesterday that the resettlement process will not extend to the Acholi sub-region where the majority of the displacement has taken place. Read more at The Daily Monitor.

While Uganda-CAN welcomes the resettlement of IDPs in Lango and Teso, we continue to call for the resettlement of all IDPs with security. The camps, initially designed to protect the people, are now leading to more than 1,000 excess deaths each week.

Uganda-CAN invites you to read the US State Department's February 2005 Report to Congress regarding the ongoing conflict in northern Uganda. The report, mandated by the Congressional Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act of 2004, discusses the reasons for continued fighting between the LRA and the Ugandan government and also discusses the responses of the Ugandan government and international community to the humanitarian crisis in IDP camps in northern Uganda. Click here to read the entire report.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that humanitarian groups operating in northern Uganda who do not work with the government will not be allowed to work in the region. He criticized them for portraying a falsely negative picture of the humanitarian situation in IDP camps, and said that such reports harm Uganda's international image. Read more at The Monitor.

President Museveni's comments demonstrate the harmful attitude towards the conflict that has characterized his response to the crisis for the past two decades. 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes into squalid IDP camps and 30,000 children have been brutally abducted during its course, but yet his remarks greater emphasis on the ability of Uganda's international image to attract tourists. To place the lives of so many at risk by threatening to ban humanitarian groups is a discouraging sign that President Museveni is still unwilling to invest the political will necessary to bring a resolution to this conflict.

The Ugandan military has extended its withdrawal of escorts to humanitarian aid workers working in northern Ugandan IDP camps. Yesterday AllAfrica.com reported that the decision would affect only areas under the UPDF 5th division, but Reuters AlertNet reports today that the decision will cover all of northern Uganda. The military will continue to provide escorts to groups that provide food aid, but military spokesman Lt. Chris Magezi said, "There is no longer need to give escorts to whoever travels on the roads. We are moving from a bad situation to an improved security situation."

Aid workers in the region are negotiating with the military to have the decision reversed. There have been at least two rebel attacks in the region over the past several weeks. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

A report released by the Famine Early Warning System Network reveals that food insecurity in northern Uganda is still the norm for the 1.5 million people displaced by the conflict. Efforts to encourage IDPs to resettle voluntarily have not been successful, and most are reliant on food aid from the UN's World Food Programme and other humanitarian organizations. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

The Ugandan military is ending its policy of providing escorts to humanitarian organizations working in IDP camps in northern Uganda under the control of the 5th Division, which includes parts of Lira district. The UPDF, which also plans to decrease the number of military escorts to the UN's World Food Programme in the area, said that the region covered by the decision was safe from LRA threats. Read more at AllAfrica.com.

The Uganda government is pressuring its chief ally, the United States, to arrest a Ugandan-American accused of assisting the rebels. Jongomoi Okidi-Olal, who is believed to have high connections in US government circles, is accused of assisting LRA and negotiating their passage into DR Congo.

MONUC's director of public relations said that then the when the LRA entered the DR Congo, its commanders gave the UN mission a phone number answered by a man claiming to be Kony. Kony referred "all discussions about the infiltration of LRA in DRC to 'our leader' in Washington" and gave his phone contact. Okidi-Olal answered that phone number. A diplomatic source said Uganda has repeatedly asked the Bush administration and UN to arrest Okidi-Olal because he is considered to be "the real brain behind LRA leadership." Read more at The New Vision.

In December 2005 John Kiweewa, a Ugandan native and Uganda-CAN grassroots organizer in New York State, traveled to northern Uganda to work with ex-child soldiers in Gulu. Click below to read his powerful narrative about the "invisible wounds" inflicted on ex-child soldiers and the challenges they face trying to rebuild their lives after escape.

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The Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA) is launching "Girls Kick It", a comprehensive sports program for young women and girls in northern Uganda. The program seeks to use sports as a tool to help young women and girls cope with the challenges of living in IDP camps and war-affected areas in northern Uganda. For more information, visit the Girls Kick It website.

The Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of USAID is planning to cut funding for northern Uganda by as much as 50 percent for the rest of 2006. This is troubling news, and Uganda-CAN urges OFDA to reconsider. The twenty-year-old war in northern Uganda has not only led to the displacement of 1.7 million people, but current reports show a mortality rate of over 1,000 war-related deaths per week.

You can urge OFDA to reconsider too. Write a letter to Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, Administrator, United States Agency for International Development, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20523 today and urge him to stop these cuts.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 416-3 to pass HR 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. The bill calls for the U.S. President to appoint a Presidential envoy to the region to address the crises in Sudan and northern Uganda. It further calls for sanctions to be placed on the Government of Sudan until it cuts off ties with rebel groups, such as the Lord's Resistance Army. This bill is certainly not perfect, but it creates momentum for U.S. leadership in the region to support peace.

On Saturday, April 8th 250 people walked in solidarity with the child victims of northern Uganda during a GuluWalk in Buffalo, NY. The Mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, kicked off the event with words of encouragement, saying, "These [children] are not our neighbors in this community, in this country, but these are our neighbors in the world." The event was organized by a coalition of groups including Uganda-CAN, GuluWalk, and several local universities and high schools. After the 5k walk around Delaware Park, the participants watched several bands perform in a benefit concert at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

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Today, we're excited to launch the 2006 Northern Uganda Grassroots Action Packets. Download an action packet today and start organizing your own community to help end the war!

Uganda-CAN has learned from classified sources that the latest report of 400 Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) militants crossing the border from Sudan into Uganda was reconfirmed by think tanks and community leaders in northern Uganda. There is evidence that LRA militants did cross the border, but their intention is not clear. Further, it is likely that numbers are incorrect. While other reports suggest Vincent Otti and perhaps Joseph Kony camping around Duru in DR Congo and leading a force of only 152 personnel, it is not likely that a number three times larger will mobilize into action in Uganda without senior command. Visit the LRA Monitoring Community Project to stay informed about LRA movement and activity.

Rosalind Hackett, distinguished professor and northern Uganda advocate at the University of Tennessee, has written a powerful article about the growing media attention to the war. Read the article published by the University of Chicago Martin Marty Center.

Three LRA rebels were recently killed at the Sudan-DR Congo border by UPDF soldiers. LRA leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti are currently thought to be in the DR Congo. Up to 80% of LRA rebels are formerly abducted child soldiers. Read more at The New Vision.

Uganda-CAN co-founder Peter Quaranto and GuluWalk co-founder Adrian Bradbury have co-authored an Op/Ed published in tomorrow's Daily Monitor newspaper. The article begins, "If we learned one thing from our trip, it is that the camps are a horrifically inadequate protection strategy. Yet, even with such mortality rates, the Government of Uganda refuses to declare the region a disaster area. The international community remains silent...So, we have one question: how many people have to die before the war in the north is treated as a priority?" The editorial concludes, "Tell us the number of people who need to die before someone is going to act with urgency. Tell us how many Acholi have to die for it to matter." Read the full editorial at The Daily Monitor.

As the war continues to take its toll on the people of northern Uganda, a new report has revealed that the north has the highest rate of abortions in the country. According to the report, one in every five pregnant women carries out abortion while the proportion of unwanted pregnancies has hit a staggering 50 per cent mark." The report continues, "The situation is not helped when vulnerable women resort to commercial sex to earn a living." The report estimates 111 abortion cases per 10000 women in the north. The Ugandan law permits induced abortions but only in a situation where it saves the mother's life. But women have opted to abort under unhygienic conditions leading to maternal deaths due to post abortion complications, illness or infertility. Read more at The Daily Monitor.

The Anglican Bishop of the Northern Uganda Diocese has made a heart-felt plea to the international community to take immediate action in the hope of finally bringing to an end the violent conflict that has plagued the region for the last twenty years to an end. Bishop Onono-Onweng told Ecumenical News International: "I do not want to lament, but I want the international community to realise that we are part of global humanity with rights to life, peace education, culture and wealth." Read more at Christianity Today.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama has appealed to the International Criminal Court to reconsider the issue of arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and four other LRA commanders accusing them of crimes against humanity. Odama, a long-time peace advocate in northern Uganda and chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, said that the warrants were hindering government negotiator Betty Bigombe's attempts to mediate a peaceful end to the LRA rebellion.

Odama's comments followed a series of meetings between ICC officials and local leaders about how to best go about implementing the ICC strategy for arresting and trying the five indicted LRA leaders. The ICC issued the warrants last October. Read more at The New Vision.

An event organized by Uganda-CAN, GuluWalk, and several Buffalo-area peace and student groups received newspaper and radio coverage today in the Buffalo. This Saturday area residents will participate in a GuluWalk and benefit concert to aid child victims of war in northern Uganda. A local high school student/activist, Keenan Parker, published an article about the event in The Buffalo News. Also, John Kennedy and Kyle Young, two students from St. Bonaventure University, appeared on Infinity Radio's PM Buffalo show to talk about the event.

A report released Friday, the Northern Uganda Baseline Survey, revealed that 70% of the people in northern Uganda live below the poverty line. It also states that only eight percent of all household income is spent on education, while less than one percent is spent on education. Read more at The New Vision.

A new study published by the Survey of War Affected Youth suggests that the number of youth abductions by the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda have been underestimated. The study suggests that a more accurate estimate may be at least 66,000 youth. The study further shows that a third of all boys and men report being abducted and a fifth never return home. Read more about these and other findings at the SWAY-Uganda Web site.

A UPDF official in northern Uganda has ordered civilians in the region to stop turning themselves in to UPDF detachments claiming to be escaped LRA rebels. LRA rebels who surrender are given an amnesty package which normally includes mattresses, household utensils, money, and sometimes land. That civilians would claim to be ex-LRA rebels is indicative of the extreme poverty in northern Uganda caused by the war and displacement into camps and the desperate measures people are forced to attempt in order to survive. Read more at Africa News Dimension.

Earlier this week UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland sat down with IRIN and discussed the war and humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda. Egeland said, "Nowhere is there such a concentrated area where many people are being terrorised for such a long period of time" and called on the Ugandan government and international community to invest more resources and political will in improving conditions in IDP camps, ending the war, and rebuilding areas affected by the conflict. Read the entire interview at IRIN.

LRA rebels in the DR Congo are trying ally with other rebel groups in the country, according to recent reports. LRA commanders have contacted rebels from the Congolese Revolution Movement (MRC) about working together, but have been unsuccessful so far. Currently the two top LRA commanders, Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti, are in the DR Congo. Read more at The New Vision.

In a visit to the region last week, Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, described the situation in northern Uganda as the worst form of terrorism. "This is the worst type of terrorism," Egeland said. "It is unacceptable, intolerable and has to change." Read more at African News Dimension.

Jan Egeland, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs and long-time advocate for increased international attention to northern Uganda, said Saturday that the UN should appoint a special envoy to northern Uganda to bolster efforts to end the two-decade-long war and humanitarian crisis in displaced person's camps. Egeland, speaking from an IDP camp in Pader district during a tour of northern Uganda, said, "Many countries should try to help on the political and military efforts, and an envoy would help to facilitate and coordinate that work."

Egeland also asked the UN Security Council to appoint a panel of experts to investigate the LRA's activities and supporters. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

A report released yesterday by the International Crisis Group, ICG, warns that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which halted two decades of civil war in southern Sudan last year, is in danger of unraveling. The report argues that a lack of political will for the CPA's implementation from the ruling National Congress Party and the disorganization plaguing the SPLM is creating an unstable environment - one which the LRA is exploiting through its increased activity in southern Sudan.

The report warned that the LRA rebellion is "threatening to become a home-grown Sudanese problem." Read the entire report at the ICG website.

Capt. Francis Ocaya, an LRA field commander, surrendered Wednesday to the UPDF in Pader district. Ocaya said that the group of LRA fighters under his command had been scattered. Read more at The New Vision.