Josine Stremmelaar

One of my objectives this month is to map out differences between sub-counties in the northern region in terms of how heavily they were affected by LRA atrocities. This turns out to be quite a challenge! I carry around maps of the area. The leader of a national NGO in Kampala is one of the many people I ask to mark LRA presence and hot-spots on the map: I watch his face while he is drawing circles. He frowns, then slowly starts to speak. ‘This where they started, the LRA,’ pointing at Gulu, ‘Then they also launched attacks in districts Kitgum and Pader... This is Acholi subregion. Then, when the Ugandan military forces started fighting them, they dispersed. They wanted to stretch and have many fronts. They splintered as guerrillas do. Some went to South Sudan, others to Lango sub-region, to Lira.’ Many more circles appear on the map, for attacks, for camps, for movements of people. ‘Gulu, Kitgum and Pader suffered most attacks, but they had more impact in Pader where nearly the entire population was displaced. But the most remembered attacks were in Lira, where the LRA attacked 2 camps within one week and the highest number of killings happened overnight. Then there were areas that have not experiences attacks, but they hosted those that were displaced from Acholi and their resources were overstretched.’ Our conversation continues. Even among the districts themselves there is disagreement about which area was affected most. Many Acholi leaders state that they are most affected and claim most of the remunerations coming out of the Juba Peace Agreements. People in Gulu often say they were most affected, because rebel leader Joseph Kony came from their sub-county Odek. Then people in Amuru say they were most affected because of hosting the largest camps, the people in Pader claim they suffered most in terms of insecurity, the people in Kitgum for their proximity to the Sudanese border. It shows how violent conflict impacts a region in various ways. Now all these different areas require different approaches to post-conflict recovery by both the government and the hundreds of aid organisations that are active in the region. Does the aid flow going to northern Uganda allow for such diversity?