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Explanation
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. Will the war now
come to an end? If so, development in the northern part of the
country can continue with peace.
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.
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