After nearly two decades of war, the Government of Uganda is launching a multi-million-dollar recovery and development strategy, dubbed a "Marshall Plan," to help the people of northern Uganda. The GoU, with the approval of the United Nations, donor countries and non-government organizations, has formed the Joint Country Coordination and Monitoring Committee (JCCMC) on northern Uganda. JCCMC is tasked to improve security of the internally-displaced people's camps and decongest the camps from 10,000 - 60,000 persons per camp to 1,000 - 3,000 to improve service delivery and enable them get closer to their parishes and villages. Read more at The New Vision.

Six children in Gulu district were severely injured on Sunday after an unexploded bomb they were playing with detonated. Their father had found the bomb in his garden earlier that morning. Residents of the area have recovered 62mm mortar shells, 44mm mortar shells, 80mm M7 RPG shells and 44mm MGL grenades. Unexploded mines, planted by the UPDF to deter LRA rebels from crossing into northern Uganda from Sudan, have also made large tracts of land in northern Uganda dangerous to civilians. Read more at the Monitor.

Today's Monitor also reports that one girl was injured last week in Pader district after LRA rebels attacked the Pader Town Council IDP camp.

Pierre-Andre Conod, who has been the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross' delegation in Uganda for the past two years, has just completed his mission in the country and has given an interview in which he discusses the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Uganda and the lack of media coverage being given to the conflict. Conod says that in order for humanitarian action to be effective in the region, organizations must be perceived favorably by all parties to the conflict, an extremely difficult task, and that recent attacks by the LRA on humanitarian organizations have forced the scaleback of relief efforts in the region. Conod also says that although international awareness of the conflict is growing, "the interest shown is out of all proportion to the magnitude of the humanitarian needs of the populations affected by this internal conflict." According to Conod, the humanitarian response in northern Uganda is extremely lacking, but he also acknowledges that even with increased aid and attention, "no organization will ever be able to erase the damage that has been done." Go here to read the transcript of the interview.

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, a Vatican representative to the United Nations in Geneva, made an appeal at a meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees standing committee on March 8 for a "massive effort" on the part of the international community to address the situation of internally displaced persons in Africa. The apostolic nuncio pointed specifically to the case of northern Uganda, saying that "among several similar situations, there is an old, protracted one of perhaps one million and a half IDPs about which the international media seems to be oblivious."

Archbishop Tomasi pointed out that as many as 1,000 excess deaths occur each week in the overcrowded and insecure IDP camps of northern Uganda. "As often is the case in these conditions of uprootedness and lack of security, women and children pay the highest price," said Archbishop Tomasi. "Besides, access to food is difficult or even impossible for a significant percentage of IDPs and of refugees in that Ugandan region."

The apostolic nuncio called for a more detailed plan to address these accumulated problems in northern Uganda "as part of an over-all renewed commitment to all forcibly displaced people in the continent." He concluded by saying that he hoped that the needed resources may be provided "as a gesture of human solidarity, as an investment in peace, so that this long uprooted population may not be forgotten." Read the full text of the Archbishop's statement here.

ReliefWeb reports that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Tuesday said that his government is making preparations to resettle people in internally displaced persons' (IDPs) camps in northern Uganda, according to a press release issued by the State House. Museveni made the remarks when meeting envoys from the European Union (EU) and U.S. in Kampala. The president said that this is possible because the region is now peaceful, adding that the people can return to their homes voluntarily.

Museveni stressed that there is need to provide the returning people with a package to enable them start new life, saying that his government is preparing to provide them with food for 6 months and seeds for planting during the next season. He expressed optimism that the people of the area could leave camps in May this year and return to their homes.

President Museveni said terrorist Kony and his group have been uprooted and have fled and are attempting to join Otti in Garamba National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He condemned a group of elements that is trying to internationalize the security problem by using the United Nations when the problem has been solved.

Uganda-CAN welcomes this move by President Museveni and calls for international support to help with the many challenges facing resettlement, including security. International action, particularly from the UN Security Council, will be critical to strengthen this process and end the crisis in northern Uganda.

The Daily Monitor reports that a new report shows that despite improvements in the past year, the humanitarian response in northern Uganda is failing. The report, which was prepared by Refugees International, an advocacy group, was released at the end of February. It reiterates that the northern crisis is one of the most severe in the world, and almost 1,000 people a week are dying primarily from lack of basic services including water, sanitation facilities and health care.

The report said although UN agencies have in the past year deployed additional staff and NGOs have expanded programmes, the situation has not changed much. "These efforts have not noticeably improved living conditions for the displaced people because insecurity limits the ability of agencies to travel to camps to implement programmes," said the report.

The government's response to the crisis, the report noted, is weak and yet it has the primary responsibility to protect and meet the basic needs of its citizens. The advocacy body called for a quick approval of the United Nation's candidate for the Resident Coordinator, "so he can engage the government, the UN and NGOs to effect a dramatic improvement in the response to the displacement crisis."