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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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!

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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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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.