Please Pray for Uganda
Please remember the people of Uganda is your prayers. In
particular, please pray for those living in northern Uganda where, for
the last 21 years, the Acholi people have been the victims of a brutal
rebel insurgency, with more people killed every day than in Iraq.
Innocent civilians have been killed or mutilated; thousands of
children
have been abducted, forced into combat, and subjected to torture and
sexual violence. It is now estimated that about 80 percent of the
entire Acholi population are internally displaced, living in camps with
little food and poor sanitation.
Since 1986, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of self-styled mystic Joseph Kony has carried out merciless attacks across the north, ostensibly in an attempt to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and to have Uganda ruled in accordance with the Biblical Ten Commandments. Over the last year there has been a sharp increase in the number of rebel attacks, leading to roughly a doubling in the population of the IDP camps, and a dramatic rise in the number of child abductions. This escalation has come after the Ugandan army intensified its efforts to wipe out the rebels. In March 2002, the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) launched 'Operation Iron Fist', which for the first time allowed the Uganda military to root out and destroy LRA rear bases inside southern Sudan.
Rather than ending the war, however, the main effect of the campaign has been to push LRA fighters into northern Uganda where they have wreaked havoc on the local population. Please see the website of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for further details.
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