Uganda Civil War

Abstract

Uganda is a landlocked nation in Eastern Africa steeped in a history of violent imperialism; with routine ethnic warring between factions, the country was never left with a period of peace to foster growth and prosper as a nation. The population is woven together from a multitude of ethnic groups - with very little in common apart from a bridging dialect of the English language, and Christianity as a major religion. The economy is composed of the agrarian and service sector. Even with its diverse natural resources, Uganda remains one of the world’s poorest nations, where basic human rights are a far-cry from realization. The most recent conflicts in the region draw their roots from the civil unrest and anti government uprising from the early 1980s which have only deepened the divide between the North and South of the nation that had been perpetrated by British Colonials in a bid to ‘divide and rule’. The government faced off against twin rebel factions of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) with massive fallout for the Ugandan people; with thousands of deaths and an estimated 400,000 people displaced forcefully from their homes. The Civil War rages on in straggled efforts by the LRA against Uganda and its neighboring nations.