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The British created the state of Uganda by linking together a number of Bantu kingdoms to the south of Lake Kioga, and the mainly Nilotic areas to the north, as far as the southern Sudan border, an area also mainly Nilotic. Since the 1970s after the overthrow of Idi Amin and the various civil wars that followed, a quasi-religious movement grew up in the Acholi Nilotic province. The context of this movement may have something to do with the fact that the winner of the post-Idi Amin wars was a government headed by Yoweri Museveni, a Hima from Ankole (descended from Tutsis). That is, he was from the southern Bantu part of the country. The religion, derived from Christianity, has developed into a predatory guerrilla army, which recruits by snatching children from the Acholi villages. The boys are made to become soldiers; the girls become sex slaves and servants to the men. This has been so serious a problem that whole villages of children have been commuting at night to the towns for safety. It is believed to have been armed by the government of Sudan as retaliation for the supposed aid given by Uganda to the rebels of southern Sudan. The ending of the war in Sudan may have made possible the negotiations that have led to the present situation. A Ceasefire seemed to have been agreed in August 2006. Would the war then come to an end? If so, development in the northern part of the country could continue with peace. No the war did not end. In June 2008 there are reports that the war is about to start up again as Kony has finally refused to sign a peace agreement.as when it came to the point of actually handing in his weapons Joseph Kony refused to do so. He is based in the border area of Congo-Kinshasa and may be receiving aid from Chadian rebels as well as the Sudanese government. Quite possibly he is getting aid from the Kinshasa government as part of their response to Ugandan and Rwandan operations inside Congo. He is also reported as "recruiting" again. |
