For more than 20 years, “the Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA) has battled the government of Uganda (GOU). The war has created a regional humanitarian disaster, leaving generations of children in crisis.

Overview of the crisis | Children suffer the most | Peace process stalled
Conflict still unresolved | Advocacy for peace | Learn more, get involved

Overview of the crisis

Since 1986, conflict has raged between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda, causing a widespread regional security and humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda and neighboring countries of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Central African Republic.

Children are abducted and forced to serve as child soldiers.

Once considered one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, more than 1.8 million people — or 80 percent of the population in northern Uganda — were forced to flee their homes and instead live in squalid displacement camps in which an estimated 1,000 individuals died each week.

Children suffer the most

The nature and duration of the conflict created tremendous humanitarian, social, and economic costs for all of Uganda, particularly for children. Protection of children has not been a priority for governments, despite national and international laws guaranteeing their basic rights.

Throughout the conflict, LRA leader Joseph Kony has created his army primarily through the violent abduction of children. An estimated 30,000 to 66,000 children have been kidnapped over the course of war.

Upwards of 90 percent of LRA ranks are populated with abducted children. The children are then forced to terrorize civilians by cutting off the hands, ears, or lips of individuals who are suspected of sympathizing with the government. To psychologically enslave both abducted children and the targeted population, the LRA uses spiritual rituals as a weapon of war.

GuluWalk participants took to the streets to urge the world to support peace in northern Uganda.

The LRA attacks villages and displacement camps to abduct children for their ranks. During the height of insecurity, the lack of civilian protection in displacement camps created the phenomenon of “night commuters.” Parents felt that they had no choice but to send their children to walk ("commute") for several miles to the nearest town to sleep at night, in the hopes of avoiding abduction.

The number of child “night commuters” soared to more than 25,000 in 2002, but the practice has stopped due to improved security in northern Uganda.

Peace process stalled

After significant public and Congressional pressure, the United States came to support the Juba Peace Talks, which were initiated in August 2006 by the government of South Sudan and supported by regional governments and the United Nations. These talks secured a landmark cease-fire agreement and made significant strides toward addressing the broader political and economic grievances of the population in northern Uganda.

However, the talks stalled in May 2008 when LRA rebel leader, Joseph Kony, refused to sign the final comprehensive peace agreement, and instead resettled the LRA in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite improved stability in northern Uganda, almost half of the nearly two million people who were forced from their homes remain in displacement camps. They face the difficult decision of whether to leave the crowded, disease-ridden camps for the uncertainty of life back home, where basic services — such as schools, clean water, and health clinics — have yet to be restored.

Many families have responded by keeping a foot in both worlds, with parents returning home to work in the fields and children left, unprotected, in the camps to attend school, where they are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Police and judicial infrastructures, crippled during the war, are unable to address high rates of sexual violence or emerging disputes over land. Combined with the massive levels of trauma caused by the war, these challenges are hindering the people of northern Uganda from emerging from the shadow of war.

Conflict still unresolved

Although international peace talks produced a landmark cessation of hostilities agreement in August 2006 and a measure of stability to northern Uganda, the LRA leadership remains at large in eastern Congo, now attacking and abducting Congolese civilians and destabilizing the broader region. Though the government of Uganda has created a framework for redeveloping conflict-affected areas, the continued lack of implementation perpetuates the poverty and despair of displaced populations.

This unresolved crisis has become a broader regional security problem, as the LRA has expanded their attacks and abductions of civilians in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Central African Republic (CAR). LRA attacks in South Sudan threaten implementation of the region’s hard-won Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Tragically, sustained peace continues to elude the people of northern Uganda and the surrounding region.

Advocacy for peace

A boy at World Vision's Children of War Center draws a picture of his home the way he remembers it before he was kidnapped .

World Vision began working in Uganda in 1986 to help improve the quality of life for Uganda's most impoverished people. More than 112,000 Ugandan children are sponsored by World Vision supporters around the world. Learn about World Vision's work in Uganda, particularly among the children and families that are deeply affected by this crisis.

In partnership with other nongovernmental organizations and our supporters, World Vision continues to advocate for sustained peace in the region. We believe that leadership from the United States can help bring peace and ask the U.S. government to:

• Call on the U.S. State Department to increase its diplomatic support to end this regional conflict.
• Hold public hearings about northern Uganda and other LRA-affected countries.
• Dedicate more assistance to help children and families in need in northern Uganda.

Learn more

• Download our talking points (PDF) to guide your advocacy message when communicating about the crisis.

Get involved

• Advocate for children in northern Uganda.Send a message to Congress and the President. Leadership from the U.S. can help bring peace to this troubled region.
• Pray for the healing and reconciliation of children and families affected by this conflict. Pray for an end to the conflict and peace in the region.
• Make a monthly financial pledge to help provide for the needs of children affected by war.