Three former LRA commanders who defected from the rebel base in Garamba Park last year were granted amnesty yesterday. Sunday Otto, Richard Odong Kau, Vincent Okema and two other former rebels identified as Alex Ojok and George Okello received their certificates from the Amnesty Commission chairman, Justice Peter Onega. They were part of a group that escaped from Garamba in the DR Congo on November 7, following a split between LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti. Read more at The New Vision.

Yesterday’s Monitor reports that alternating floods and dry spells are causing a “widespread famine” in Uganda’s northeastern region of Karamoja. Though Karamoja’s current food crisis is partly to blame on environmental factors, a study of livelihoods and human security in Karamoja released last month explores how a mix of conflict, environmental factors and complex cultural changes are at the root of poverty and food insecurity in Uganda’s least developed region. The Feinstein International Center report details how the commercialization and increased violence of cattle raiding, an abusive military campaign to disarm civilians and turmoil in traditional leadership structures has disrupted traditional Karamojong migration routes and coping strategies for dealing with the harsh climate and tensions faulted along ethnic lines. The Ugandan government has largely ignored its responsibility to boost economic development and provide government services, while the international is only just beginning to react to the complex situation. Read more and download the report here.

Sudan is today celebrating the third anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that brought an end to the war between the Northern-based government and southern Sudan rebels that lasted two decades and killed 2.2 million people. Yet, as we reported throughout 2007, the CPA remains fragile and a return to violence is not hard to imagine. In particular, the slow (or non-) withdrawal of Sudanese Armed Forces from southern areas and disputes over the oil-rich Abyei region have escalated tensions. Less reported but perhaps more important, life for the ordinary southern Sudanese family has not improved significantly.

» Read More