In the late 1980s and 1990s, Uganda was seen as a success story having overcome years of violence under dictators Idi Amin and Milton Obote. In mid-2002, however, Uganda once again drew international attention when fighting between rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government escalated significantly in northern parts of the country, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing more than 1.6 million.
After several years of brutal violence, a ceasefire was negotiated between the LRA and the government in 2006, and today the area remains relatively calm. Tens of thousands of formerly displaced people are now making the journey home – either to their original villages or to transit areas nearby.
In recent years, Uganda has also hosted a large population of refugees from neighboring conflicts in Sudan and Kenya. The majority of these refugees have now also returned home given the ongoing stability in Southern Sudan and an end to the post-electoral violence in Kenya.
The northeast of Uganda, specifically the Karamoja sub-region, also experiences outbreaks of violence between neighboring, traditionally pastoralist, clans. Environmental degradation coupled with extreme poverty, chronic food shortages, and a lack of jobs has led clans to launch violent raids – exacerbated by the prevalence of automatic weapons – to steal valuable livestock from neighbors as a means of survival.
Read the latest posts from Uganda on the IRC blog
How We Help
The International Rescue Committee began working in Uganda in 1998 in response to the widespread devastation wrought by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Eleven years on, we are moving away from delivering emergency interventions and focusing on helping people rebuild and provide independently for themselves and their communities. To that end, we are supporting communities as they return home by providing essential services such as medical care, sanitation, education, economic assistance, and protection and promotion of rights.
