Uganda

Prospects for a comprehensive peace accord between the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M), widely expected to have been signed in April 2008, remain unclear, amid reports that LRA leader Joseph Kony on 11 April refused to sign the final document and dismissed his negotiating team. After more than 20 years of armed conflict and attendant violence, poverty and widespread internal displacement, communities in northern Uganda continue to yearn for a meaningful transition to recovery and development. Despite recent setbacks, progressive negotiations to date have contributed to marked improvements in security conditions and significant returns by camp-based communities to original homesteads in the north.  By late-2007, more than half (54%) of the up to 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDP) had entered the return process, including half a million people settling permanently in their villages of origin and approximately 400,000 having made the initial movement out of the camps into transitional settlements. At the same time, humanitarian needs have not abated. UNICEF continues to support the Government of Uganda to serve the most vulnerable children and women in camps, return areas and underdeveloped regions through programmes in Primary Health Care, Nutrition, Immunization, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion.
Uganda Humanitarian Action Update 25 Apr 2008 [pdf]

Heavy and persistent rainfall since July 2007 has caused dangerous levels of flooding and water-logging, the worst in decades, across large swathes of eastern and northern Uganda.  Most acutely affected are the eastern Teso sub-region (Amuria, Bukedea, Katakwi, Kumi, Soroti Districts); the north-eastern Karamoja sub-region (Abim, Kotido, Moroto, Nakapiripirit); the central Elgon sub-region (Manafwa, Bududa, Sironko, Bukwo, Kapchorwa); and lowlands of the northern Lango (Lira District) and Acholi (Pader, Kitgum Districts) sub-regions.  Children and women comprise up to 80 percent of the nearly 400,000 people affected by the situation, including approximately 200,000 who require immediate, emergency shelter and household items after being displaced from their homes, as well as the 110,000 already displaced as a result of the northern Uganda conflict. The heaviest impact has been in those areas of the country where basic services had already been overstretched, and assessments to date by humanitarian organisations show flood damage further disrupting those services and exacerbating the situation.  The contamination of water sources, following the collapse of flooded latrines, poses a direct threat to the health of children and their caregivers (even once flood waters recede). The incidence of water-borne diseases, malaria and acute respiratory infections has reportedly increased by as much as 30 percent. Varying degrees of structural damage to classrooms and teachers' quarters in 289 primary schools have prevented more than 100,000 children from beginning their third-term of the academic year on time.
UNICEF is responding to the needs of 400,000 uprooted children and women in the areas of Child Survival and Development, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Education, and Emergency Shelter (Non-Food Items).
Uganda Humanitarian Action Update 24 Sep 2007 [pdf]

Two decades of armed conflict between the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have perpetuated a complex humanitarian situation in northern Uganda's Acholi and Lango sub-regions, marked by violence, poverty and the internal displacement of more than 1.5 million people. The right of access to essential services in health, nutrition, safe water, education, protection and shelter by the most vulnerable populations in the most disadvantaged parts of the districts remains largely unfulfilled. Children and women represent 80 percent of internally displaced persons (IDP) and have been the direct targets of attacks, sexual violence and abductions perpetuated by the LRA and others. The renewal by the Government and LRA in April 2007 of a landmark Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, and the resumption of negotiations mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan hold the promise of an increasingly secure environment for return, rehabilitation and recovery. At the time of this report, however, neither large-scale returns of IDPs nor the official release of children and women associated with the LRA has occurred.
UNICEF urgently requires US$ 16 million to ease the impact of conflict on children and respond to their immediate needs in the areas of education, protection and HIV/AIDS.
Uganda Donor Update 1 June 2007 [pdf]

© UNICEF UGANDA/2007/HYUN

Un trabajador de salud basado en la comunidad vacuna a un niño contra la sarampión en el campo Pabbo IDP

El conflicto armado entre las Fuerzas de Defensa Popular de Uganda y el Ejército de Resistencia del Señor, que se inició hace 19 años, ha desencadenado una grave crisis humanitaria en la que prácticamente ha desaparecido el derecho de los niños, las niñas y las mujeres a la atención básica de la salud, la educación, el suministro de agua y la integridad física. Un 80% de los 1,4 millones de personas desplazadas en Uganda está constituido por niños y niñas y mujeres que viven en más de 200 campamentos en diversos distritos del país. Un estudio de UNICEF y la OMS estableció que en tres distritos afectados por conflictos las tasas de mortalidad de los menores de cinco años habían llegado a niveles alarmantes. UNICEF solicita con carácter urgente 18,2 millones de dólares estadounidenses para dar respuesta a las necesidades de las mujeres y los niños y niñas
Actualización de donantes para Uganda, 28 de septiembre de 2005 [pdf- en inglés]