Diocese of Winchester

Children in a displacement camp in Kitgum

The two decades of atrocities in Northern Uganda have caused huge amounts of suffering and hardship, which communities in the region can only slowly heal given peace, prayer, help and time. The information that follows is a summary of how situation has arisen, and gives examples of some of the issues facing communities and individuals in the region. It doesn’t make for easy reading.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (known as the LRA and reported by BBC News as now operating in DR Congo) was probably formed with the political intention of drawing the Ugandan government into conflict and so give a few armed leaders from the Acholi tribe more political power. However, it is difficult to understand their motivation when so many of their victims have been from the Acholi tribe.

LRA leader Joseph Kony appears to have been involved with the occult in the past, which directed him to kill his fellow tribes people and abduct girls to be ‘wives’ for his leaders. The group is definitely not, as their name suggests, a Christian group; the ten commandments they are said to follow include “thou shalt not have any kind of charms or remains of small sticks in your pocket, including also the small piece used as a toothbrush” and another that would probably not pass any parental controls set for internet access!

LRA tactics include the abduction of children who are then retained as child fighters or ‘wives’, mutilation and murder. This behaviour is what caused many communities to abandon their homes, and children to become ‘night commuters’ fleeing into towns like Kitgum and Gulu at night to seek relative safety. In response, the Ugandan government to put people across NE Uganda into displacement camps in an effort to protect them. By 2004 there were approximately 1.5 million people in these camps, which remain overcrowded, and have poor sanitation and health provision.

There are few people in the region who have not suffered as a result of these attacks, including the current Bishop of Kitgum (who was abducted at one point) and his predecessor (whose wife was killed). However, the political situation has seen increasing periods of relative stability during peace talks, although it is tragic that the LRA now seemed to have moved their sphere of attack to the DRC possibly in an effort to avoid justice in Uganda.

Mothers’ Union members in the region have been involved in community work within the displacement camps, as can be seen in our opening page about Kitgum. However, they have also started working on the rehabilitation of the many former slavery as child soldiers who have returned to the region. For these very damaged people, some form of re-integration into their communities needs to be achieved.

To give an example of the sort of issues these young people need to be carefully helped to overcome, here are some personal stories from them:

• A 19 year old boy who asked if Jesus could forgive him because the commanders had forced him to kill his 17 year old brother;
• A man who had his arm bandaged from elbow to hand where he had been forced by commanders to hold his arm in a fire;
• People trying to send messages back to others still with the LRA, telling them that there are places they can now go to find forgiveness if they can make their escape.

The final story gives an example of the type of re-adjustment which those returning from the LRA have to make, why they cannot be returned immediately to their original communities and why the counselling and prayer of members of the Mothers’ Union and other Christians is so vital to their future:

Two girls returned to their village having been fighting with the rebels for many years. One day they go out together to gather firewood for their village, but only one girl returns. When questioned, she explained that her companion has said she was “too tired” to walk home from their search. Thinking that her companion meant she wanted to die, she strangled her and left her body in the bush. She could not understand that what she had done was wrong… It transpired that LRA leaders taught that to complain you are “too tired” to walk was to ask to die – and a fellow soldier was ordered kill you on the spot.

This shows why, after they have spent many years in such an environment, those returning from the LRA need time and care to adjust to ‘normality’.