Lord S Resistance Army

How do you end a 19-year insurgency led by a messianic guerrilla leader with an army of abducted, tortured, and brainwashed children? For years, we have been attempting to answer this question in northern Uganda, where the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader, Joseph Kony, have preyed mercilessly upon civilians since 1987 and created a humanitarian catastrophe. During the last year we, acting with the support of Uganda's president, have worked in pursuit of a peaceful end to this brutal conflict.

WHILE Melissa Fitzgerald was in northern Uganda filming her documentary "Staging Hope," a teenager came up to her and asked for one thing: "Don't let us die in these camps," the youth said. "Don't forget about us. " His appeal is repeated several times throughout "Staging Hope. " Through the documentary, Fitzgerald - who grew up in Chestnut Hill and graduated from Springside School and the University of Pennsylvania - hopes to inform the U.S. about the plight of northern Uganda and keep the conversation about humanitarian efforts alive.

A Wilmington, Del., man is among those killed Sunday in a pair of bombings in Uganda that officials believe were carried out by Islamic extremists. Nate Henn, 25, worked with Invisible Children, a San Diego-based organization that publicizes the plight of child soldiers in East Africa and helps former youth combatants. On his Facebook page, Henn lists Wilmington as his hometown and said he was a 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware and a 2003 graduate of Concord High School.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Ugandan criticism of a viral video about a brutal central African warlord continued to grow since a public screening in a remote Ugandan town once terrorized by the Lord's Resistance Army. The head of a Ugandan charity that showed "Kony 2012" said Thursday that he would suspend further screenings after getting overwhelmingly negative reaction from viewers on Tuesday who did not understand why there were so many white faces in the video, or why Kony needed to be made famous.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday that he was dispatching roughly 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to help battle the Lord's Resistance Army, which the administration accuses of a campaign of murder, rape, and kidnapping children that spans two decades. In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops would act as advisers in efforts to hunt down rebel leader Joseph Kony but would not engage in combat except in self-defense. Pentagon officials said the bulk of the U.S. contingent would be special operations troops, who will provide security and combat training to African units.

Lira, northern Uganda - Sophia Apio knows how brutal the war in her homeland has been. She also knows her needs will continue even when peace comes for good. One day in 2004, rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army sliced off both her ears and her lips. Apio, now 38, had just come back with three friends from an IDP camp to get some cassava tubers from her old village. The rebels came upon them as they were digging through the dirt. "Little did we know that the rebels were up in the trees around the garden," Apio said.

Memo to President Bush and Ugandan President Museveni: Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad you two could get together today in Washington. A loud and clear statement that you are squarely behind the fitful negotiations to end the war in northern Uganda, a war almost two decades old, could score you welcome political and public relations victories. You could justify stepping up your support for the talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, simply on humanitarian grounds.

In an earlier column, I mentioned two projects I had in mind to further the cause of protecting children: one to assist children at home (I'm still working on that), and one to aid children abroad. With this column, I begin the latter - trying to help children who are kidnapped and forced into being soldiers and slaves in northern Uganda. I thought it best to present this effort in journal form. If my quest seems a little crazy, there is a point to it, and not a small one: No matter what your reason is for helping children, no matter where they may be, The Inquirer hopes at least to show that it's perfectly possible to dig into an issue you feel passionately about - even one 7,124 miles away in a little-watched corner of the world.

Nearly 200 Uganda refugees die when rebels torch camp Scores of rebels armed with assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a refugee camp of in northern Uganda and torched mud-and-grass huts, killing 192 people and wounding dozens more. Saturday evening's attack on Barloonyo camp in Lira district was blamed by local officials on the Lord's Resistance Army, a shadowy rebel group that has been fighting the Ugandan government for 17 years. Dr. Jane Aceng, head of Lira hospital, said 56 people were taken to the hospital with burns and shrapnel and gunshot wounds.

If President Bush really wants to leave no child behind, he will give Betty Bigombe a car. Bigombe is a former government minister of Uganda, where I have been for more than three weeks - mainly in the north, where a civil war between the government and a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army has primarily targeted children. Yes, children. Innocent children. Boys and girls as young as 7 are abducted by the LRA and its unpredictable leader, Joseph Kony. Most of the 20,000 or so children kidnapped over the war's 18 years have been forced into being soldiers or sex slaves.

DJEMA, Central African Republic - An Internet campaign that has gone viral aims to capture the notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, but Ugandan foot soldiers who have spent years searching for the man are starting to ask a question their top commanders prefer to ignore: Is it possible he is dead? Ugandan army officials say the Lord's Resistance Army leader is alive and hiding somewhere within the Central African Republic. Rank-and-file soldiers, however, say intelligence on Kony is so limited that if he dies, or is already dead, his foes might never know and could wind up chasing a ghost through this vast Central Africa jungle.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Ugandan criticism of a viral video about a brutal central African warlord continued to grow since a public screening in a remote Ugandan town once terrorized by the Lord's Resistance Army. The head of a Ugandan charity that showed "Kony 2012" said Thursday that he would suspend further screenings after getting overwhelmingly negative reaction from viewers on Tuesday who did not understand why there were so many white faces in the video, or why Kony needed to be made famous.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Ugandan criticism of a viral video about a brutal central African warlord continued to grow since a public screening in a remote Ugandan town once terrorized by the Lord's Resistance Army. The head of a Ugandan charity that showed "Kony 2012" said Thursday he would suspend further screenings after getting overwhelmingly negative reaction from viewers on Tuesday who did not understand why there were so many white faces in the video, or why Kony needed to be made famous.

WHILE Melissa Fitzgerald was in northern Uganda filming her documentary "Staging Hope," a teenager came up to her and asked for one thing: "Don't let us die in these camps," the youth said. "Don't forget about us. " His appeal is repeated several times throughout "Staging Hope. " Through the documentary, Fitzgerald - who grew up in Chestnut Hill and graduated from Springside School and the University of Pennsylvania - hopes to inform the U.S. about the plight of northern Uganda and keep the conversation about humanitarian efforts alive.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday that he was dispatching roughly 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to help battle the Lord's Resistance Army, which the administration accuses of a campaign of murder, rape, and kidnapping children that spans two decades. In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops would act as advisers in efforts to hunt down rebel leader Joseph Kony but would not engage in combat except in self-defense. Pentagon officials said the bulk of the U.S. contingent would be special operations troops, who will provide security and combat training to African units.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday he's dispatching roughly 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to support the battle against a guerrilla group accused of widespread atrocities, but he stressed they're being sent to advise, not to join the fight. In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops would act as advisers in a long-running battle against the Lord's Resistance Army and help to hunt down its notorious leader, Joseph Kony. He said they would not engage in combat except in self-defense.

A Wilmington, Del., man is among those killed Sunday in a pair of bombings in Uganda that officials believe were carried out by Islamic extremists. Nate Henn, 25, worked with Invisible Children, a San Diego-based organization that publicizes the plight of child soldiers in East Africa and helps former youth combatants. On his Facebook page, Henn lists Wilmington as his hometown and said he was a 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware and a 2003 graduate of Concord High School.

The doctor was telling the teenage war veteran from Uganda that he could alternate between two attachments to his new prosthetic arm: a hook or a hand. The hook "doesn't look as beautiful," said Alberto Esquenazi, the physician who leads MossRehab's Regional Amputee Center and who also wears a prosthetic arm. "But you can do more with a hook. " Ronald Okello, 18, wasn't buying it. But he certainly wasn't arguing either. There were just too many new possibilities to explore.

Memo to President Bush and Ugandan President Museveni: Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad you two could get together today in Washington. A loud and clear statement that you are squarely behind the fitful negotiations to end the war in northern Uganda, a war almost two decades old, could score you welcome political and public relations victories. You could justify stepping up your support for the talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, simply on humanitarian grounds.

Gulu, Northern Uganda - Play is terrific therapy for what ails the mind and heart of children, especially those who have lived amid war. One organization using sports to help young people overcome their trauma in northern Uganda is The Kids League. With programs throughout Uganda, it had been especially active in the north until recently. The Gulu office recently shut down as The Kids League searches for more funding. It deserves the modest investment needed to continue organizing sports for children age 7 to 14 - soccer for boys and netball for girls - at many of the camps for internally displaced people.