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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.