Uganda: An Overview
Among InterAction Members Responding*
Action Against Hunger
CARE
Catholic Relief Servies
Christian Children’s Fund
International Rescue Committee
Oxfam
Save the Children
World Vision International
*Note: This list may not include all InterAction members working in this country/region. If your organization is working in this area and is not included in this list, please email Linda Poteat. |
While the rest most of the world only learned recently has not known of the war in n orthern Uganda until through recently improved media coverage, the citizens of th at e northern region of the country have suffered for nearly 20 years. An estimated 30,000 children have been abducted and used as for soldiers, porters and sex slaves , and upwards to two 2.0 million people have been displaced to squalid camps and settlements where they are depend ant upon the international community for their survival. Joseph Kony, who leads the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), claims he is fighting the government of Uganda to establish , as he claims a country based upon the Ten Commandments, but though his actual demands and negotiations have largely been undeterminable and difficult to decipher.
With a history of sanctuary and material support from the Sudanese government, the LRA’s actions have contributed to the displacement of thousands of people into camps with deplorable living conditions that have only worsened as the number of displaced has risen and security problems have eroded humanitarian access to the camps. Malnutrition rates among children are an average of 7 to 21 percent in the north ; and . t The HIV/AIDS rate in the north is 11.9 percent % compared to the national average of 6.7 percent %. It is also not uncommon to find anywhere from 1,052 to 15,000 people sharing a single water source and latrine coverage is nowhere near Sphere Standards. Every night M more than 20,000 children make their way from their camps every night to the main cities seeking protection from abduction by and camp ing out in schools, churches, hospitals and shop verandas - —a phenomena known as “night commuting ”. Curr ently, t The government of Sudan has said tha it they will stop will cease any more support ing for the LRA ’s efforts and Kony has made several unprecedented public appearances through with media interviews and video clips claiming to want to negotiate peace. While an imminent end to the war it is almost beyond hope that this war might see an end an ytime soon, these recent developments are it is something for the international community should seize upon grasp and try to support if at all possible.
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