An elderly man soon after his arrival at the child protection unit (CPU) in Gulu. The rebels had forced him to carry their loot for days with little food and water, then released him.

"This is a funny war. I cannot even describe it. The rebels are killing their own brothers and mothers. We are killing ourselves. We are confused."
Nelson Ojok, primary school teacher at Kilak Corner IDP camp in Pader District, northern Uganda.

The war that has raged for 17 years in northern Uganda has left its people battered and bruised, tormented by grief, despair and fear. Few conflicts rival it for sheer brutality. Civilians have been killed and mutilated. Thousands have been abducted, tortured and sexually abused. Many have been forced to commit atrocities or to look on, helpless, as others are beaten, raped or murdered. Abducted children are forced to work as labourers, soldiers or sex slaves.

More than 1.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes. Deprived of their means of livelihood, once proud farmers and their families now depend entirely on the food they receive in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many people have little or no access to proper medical care. Education has been disrupted. Many children do not sleep at home for fear of being abducted. Instead, they walk kilometres at the end of each day from their villages to the relative safety of towns, where they spend the night in public buildings or on the streets.

Since 1986, northern Uganda has been racked by insurgencies. The latest and longest of these rebellions, that of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has devastated Acholi, an area close to Uganda's border with Sudan, and has now spread to the neighbouring subregions of Teso and Lango. No one knows for sure how many people have died, but estimates run into the tens of thousands.
The war between the LRA and the national army, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) has had a telling effect on the inhabitants of northern Uganda. The three districts of the Acholi subregion, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, have been particularly hard hit. Death and disease rates are high, and food is scarce. About 80 percent of Acholi's people live in "protected villages" and camps for IDPs, which are often overcrowded, and lack adequate water, sanitation and health services. Devoid of any means of livelihood in the camps, a people of farmers and cattle rearers have been reduced to near-total dependence on donated food and other humanitarian aid.

Child abductions have long been a major feature of the conflict, but the number shot up after the UPDF launched an offensive against the LRA in March 2002. The rebels kidnapped more than 10,000 children between June 2002 and October 2003, up from 101 in 2001. This brought the total number abducted by the LRA since the start of the conflict to more than 20,000.

Abductees are made to carry heavy loads over long distances. Those who lag behind or fall ill are beaten or killed. Some are forced to kill, maim, beat or abduct innocent victims, or to look on as such abuses are committed. Sexual violence against girls and women is rampant. They are used as domestic servants or forced into sexual slavery as LRA commanders' 'wives'. They are subject to rape, unwanted pregnancy and the risk of infection, including HIV.
One of the visible signs of the collective trauma to which the people of northern Uganda have been subjected is the phenomenon of "night commuters". 

These are vulnerable people who, fearing abduction, move from the countryside into slightly more secure villages, towns or camps at the end of each day. Most are children who walk up to 10 km to seek refuge from the threat of abduction and violence. They gather in schools, hospitals, district offices, and NGO compounds - wherever they think they can spend the night in safety. Many have to sleep in the open, where they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The UN has estimated the number of night commuters in Gulu and Kitgum districts at 25,000.

Few schools operate in the north, and these are mostly in towns, which are relatively safe. LRA attacks led to the closure or destruction of 136 out of 189 primary schools in Gulu District in 1996, according to one aid agency. Local officials reported this year that about half the schools in Kitgum and around 90 percent in Pader had been closed.

Conflict rooted in history
The conflict that has spawned the humanitarian emergency in northern Uganda is rooted in the country's recent history, with its complex mix of uneven social and economic development, violent regional conflict and marginalisation of minorities by governments and elites in power.

After the National Resistance Movement/Army of President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986, there was a widespread fear in the north, especially among the Acholi people, that it would take revenge for atrocities committed when northerners dominated the army. NRA military actions, during which Acholis were abused, tortured or 'disappeared', partially justified these fears, leading many to join rebel movements. These included the Uganda People's Democratic Army (elements of the Ugandan army who fled to Sudan and regrouped after the NRA took power) and Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement.

Lakwena emerged in late 1986, claiming to be possessed by a spirit that was guiding her for the good of the Acholi people, who felt they were being victimised. Her movement offered Acholi soldiers ritual purification for past misdeeds, along with a moral and religious mission to support their opposition to the NRM. This won her some degree of popular support among the Acholi. Her movement was defeated by the Ugandan army in 1987, but her claim that she had spiritual guidance inspired Joseph Kony, who has also purported to be visited by spirits. He gathered remnants of the Holy Spirit Movement around him and formed the Uganda People's Democratic Christian Army, which became the LRA around 1994.

Observers say Kony's supposed religious mysticism is where the similarity to Lakwena ends. Rather than enjoying popularity and winning the hearts and minds of the Acholi people, the LRA has targeted the civilian population - in defiance of international law - committing severe human rights abuses in the process.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kony switched from battlefield confrontations with the Ugandan army to kidnapping civilians, attacking hospitals and ambushing vehicles. His group also started mutilating people: cutting off lips and noses, using padlocks to lock the mouths of those they thought might report them, and cutting off hands and ears.
Beyond its stated aim to overthrow the Ugandan government and its purported commitment to establishing a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments, the LRA appears to have no clear political agenda. For the most part, the rebels choose not to engage the Ugandan military, but target schools, health centres, passing vehicles, IDP camps and refugee settlements.