When at the beginning of 2008 I first came to Northern Uganda, the land of the most tasty mangos I have ever tried, I learnt that the post-war area was quite peaceful: no gunshots had been heard in the previous two years. It was my great hope that the peace talks between the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the Ugandan Government would lead somewhere.

Although refugees in the IDP camps were complaining about the effectiveness of the thousands of registered NGO’s on the ground (see: my first post), I firmly believed that the international involvement after years of silence was a positive development.

I was also impressed with the energy which was invested by some organizations into the rehabilitation of this region. Especially Invisible Children, present in Northern Uganda for the last 7 years. Their story started off with a bunch of young filmmakers who shot a documentary (see it here) – using my favourite journey motif– which helped their viewers to understand and relate to the stories of anonymous children affected by the war in Northern Uganda.

The outcome of IC initiatives was incredible and with sustained lobbying they managed to create a substantial amount of political will (if you haven’t read about their success story see Perry here, I strongly recommend it).

However, yesterday’s BBC article, in which a recent report by Human Rights Watch is quoted, made me pensive and sad.

It is the same sad story... the same tragedies, the same barbaric methods... but in a different location. These stories are playing out right this moment, silently, in remote areas of central Africa. Every day another abduction; like this one from a Ugandan I interviewed who preferred to remain anonymous:

It is actually even worse now. The conflict has spread. Civilians were said to have been abducted in remote regions of the Central African Republic (CAR) and the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo. To escape abductions, some 54,000 villagers ran away from their homes in the Bas Uele region of northern DR Congo.

Who will help these new abductees and the children who so often bear the brunt of such conflicts? Will the affected countries form an effective coalition to fight Joseph Kony's continuing rebellion? A more worrying question is: do they care?

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

{Find the transcript of the interview here:

“At around midnight the rebels came, they kicked to the door; they had already flashed the torch onto me. Then they told me to stand up; I stood up and then they told me to carry up that bag of mine and put on my back. Then we moved for around 26 kilometers that very night.

They could ask people - whenever they get you and they find that you are not able to walk – they ask you a question ‘Can we give you a long sleeved shirt or a short sleeved?’ .

Long sleeved means that if you say you want a long sleeved your arm should be cut from here, remaining only this part. You have to answer at least a question. If you say you want a short sleeved, then they cut it from here. Or if  they say : ‘do you want to laugh, and you say yes, so they cut off your lips’. If you run they shoot you.  There is also a point that there is also question that they ask that if you answer that one they cut off all your nose. We have victims We have one mum that is very close, 30 m from here. And when you go now moving around between these bushed you find a lot of skulls, bones, and so on, people who have died. Around 50 kg of salt into your back, going to Sudan

Is there any track, any particular track to Sudan?

No. They just go from where there is a lot of grass then they begin their own path there because they believe that all those paths that are already existing  - the government troops have already put landmines so they have to create their own.

And that is why that group that is returning, you find that they are still of school-going age. Now the problem that they are having is they are not educated, no employment and the government is not even supporting them. We are anticipating that within few year or some few months from today, these are the very children who are going to turn to rob others because they are not being supported, they are not being taken to school, and so on.”}

CREDITS: MAP: BBC.CO.UK, SONG USED IN THE SOUND: AYUB OGADA