At the end of 2003, Jan Egeland, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the BBC: "I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda that is getting so little international attention." Egeland's words could not have been more true or their ramifications more horrifying.

On the ground in northern Uganda, the scene is shocking. Tens of thousands of civilians have been maimed or killed by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Ninety percent of the region's population of almost two million people has been relocated into internally displaced people's camps that lack food and security. People in the camps are enduring disease, malnutrition, and nighttime attacks from the LRA.

An old man living in one such camp told us, "Since 1985, we have just had restless nights...In some ways, we are already dead. We yearn for peace, but we have no hope anymore."

Further, the bulk of the soldiers fighting for the LRA are children aged seven to seventeen who have been abducted from towns and camps. Escapees recount stories of being abducted, brutalized, brainwashed, and forced to kill viciously.

Yet, from the rest of the world, silence abounds. For years the U.S. government and entire international community have looked the other way, not providing the necessary relief assistance nor using their diplomatic power to push the Ugandan government to commit to ending this war. This inaction has facilitated the maintenance of the status quo and has served to perpetuate the violence. In recent reports, Reuters AlertNet, Medicins san Frontiers and the United Nations placed Uganda on top of the list of the world's most forgotten crises.

Ugandans deserve better. It is time for the international community to stop ignoring such unnecessary human suffering. We must use our power as people and citizens to turn attention and resources to this disaster and the region as a whole. We must act now to see that our own government seizes this opportunity to contribute to a long-awaited peace in northern Uganda, the Great Lakes Region of Africa and beyond.