War in Uganda

The rebels and the government troops in Uganda have been fighting each other for over 18 years now. The world's media has largely ignored the conflict. The victims of the war are the civilians, primarily children. The rebels are looting, stealing, killing and pushing people out of their homes.

The war is one of the longest guerrilla wars in African history. The Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA) and it's leader Joseph Kony, does not demand any territorial or political power. Their aim is to establish a Christian state of God after the Ugandan government is overthrown. Resulting from this war, however, are sheer acts of terror against the civilian population.

Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA believes that he is a medium of powerful spirits (there are 12 of them, including Bruce Lee). He makes his army of abducted children believe, that holy oil, holy water and holy stones will make them invulnerable against their enemies. The children are forced to fight the cruel war, brainwashed, they find legitimacy in Kony's misguided spirituality.

Until now the war took place in the Acholi region, „...but the conflict is extending across the whole country!“, says the Ugandan Archbishop, John B. Odama.

800.000 Acholis are refugees in their own country

The rebels are raiding, looting and devastating the Acholi villages, they are abducting the children and are killing men and women. The rebels have killed ten thousand people since the beginning of the civil war, many of whom were mutilated with spates and machetes.
The Ugandan government has forced almost the entire civilian population of the Acholi region into so called “protected villages.” In doing so, the president Museveni and his commanders hope to see an end to the war by curtailing abductions the life-support of the rebel army. The protected villages do not only lack protection from the army but also the bare essentials to survive. Away from their crop fields, the people are not able to take care of themselves and are dependent on help from outside. However this is also threatened relief convoys from World-Food-Program are raided the rebels before they even reach the camp.
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