Lord's Resistance Army Research Articles

Outside the Frame: Looking Beyond the Myth of Garamba's LRA Ivory–Terrorism Nexus

There have been widespread reports of elephant poaching by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Garamba National Park (GNP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), presenting a narrative that ivory poaching funds terror and that both can be solved by the same (military) intervention. This narrative distorts the complex dynamics. It identifies clear villains, edits out other poaching actors, and legitimises particular interventions. Poaching is portrayed as a moral, non-political issue and military intervention is portrayed as a logical outcome. The wider history and current context are neglected. The LRA's poaching threat, relative to other actors, is overemphasised. It ignores how the LRA poaching—real as it was—fits into a history of poaching caused by problems with state capacity and territorial control, including incursions by armed actors. The situation demands solutions that are more complex than merely defeating the LRA. More so, military intervention against the LRA has worsened poaching, due to state military implications in poaching. The article shows how the 'LRA ivory–terrorism' narrative is a discursive tool for particular agendas, which primarily allow particular interventions, legitimisation of resources, or wider readership. In this way, the actors involved create their own echo-chamber, which is less concerned with local dynamics and which does not include practical conservation actors in Garamba. The narrative has also begun to shift.

Conflict Threats to Human Security: The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Case, Gulu District, Northern Uganda

The study recognised that conflicts threaten human security in various ways. When prolonged, for example, they have a direct damage on physical infrastructure such as medical and educational facilities. Using a qualitative research approach, the study focused on Gulu district in Northern Uganda, to unearth the threats to human security as a result of the protracted Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict. The data collection methods included: Focus Group Discussions, Interviews and Document Review. Samples of 44 participants were purposively identified. From the field findings, it was discovered that the dimensions of human security threatened by conflict ranged from personal, health and community security. The study recommended that there needs to be a deliberate effort in the post-conflict period to rehabilitate infrastructure especially schools and hospitals while counselling services should be supported to mitigate the psychological effects of the conflict.

The LRA and Its Costs on Economic Security in Gulu District, Northern Uganda

The study acknowledged economic security as part of the wider security conceptions especially in human security. Using the case of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the study brought to light the costs of conflict on economic security particularly in Gulu district, Northern Uganda. It adopted a qualitative approach and relied on primary data collection methods (Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and observation) to assess how conflict affected economic security. Field findings revealed that the conflict had tremendous effects on economic security ranging from destruction of property and loss of assets, reduction in production and persistent poverty among others. The study recommended that the government should deliberately target the most vulnerable groups for training and skilling as well as capitalization of income generating projects.

Stigmatization Is Associated With Increased PTSD Risk After Traumatic Stress and Diminished Likelihood of Spontaneous Remission-A Study With East-African Conflict Survivors.

Studies in conflict population have repeatedly documented that the number of traumatic event types experienced (trauma load) increases the risk to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a dose-dependent manner. Misconceptions about survivors' experiences and actions during the war, as well as mental health symptoms frequently lead to stigmatization by their own families and the community, which might render them even more vulnerable for PTSD development and prevent successful recovery. We therefore investigated whether stigmatization affects trauma-related psychopathology beyond the well-known effect of trauma load. The study sample comprised N = 1131 survivors of the rebel war led by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda, including a large proportion of formerly abducted individuals and child soldiers. We investigated how the experience of stigmatization affects PTSD risk and the likelihood of spontaneous remission, taking trauma load into account. Further, the association of stigmatization with treatment outcome was determined in a subsample of N = 284 individuals with PTSD who received trauma-focused psychotherapy. More than one third of the total sample, and almost two-thirds of the therapy subsample, reported experiences of stigmatization. The main reasons for stigmatization were related to an association with a rebel group (e.g., being called a rebel), followed by mental health problems/PTSD symptoms and HIV/AIDS. Stigmatization was strongly associated with a higher prevalence of lifetime and current PTSD, a diminished probability of spontaneous remission and higher PTSD symptoms before and after trauma-focused psychotherapy, beyond the effect of trauma load. In sum, our results support the assumption that stigmatization aggravates trauma-related psychopathology and impede symptom improvement. In post-conflict regions, community and family interventions which aim at reducing stigmatization and discrimination might therefore complement individual psychotherapy in order to allow survivors to recover and reintegrate into society.

The Interactive Relationship between Gender and Strategy

The central argument of this article is that gender affects the strategy of non-state armed organisations (NSAOs) and strategic decisions affect gender dynamics inside NSAOs. The article makes a theoretical contribution by constructing a framework to analyse the two-way relationship between gender and strategy that can be applied to different NSAOs. The first part of the framework analyses the gender dynamics in the society where an NSAO is formed. The second component examines the ways in which gender dynamics in that society affect NSAOs’ strategic decisions. The final step involves analysing the new gender order inside an NSAO created by gendered strategic decisions. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda is the central case study used to illustrate the utility of this framework, but I also briefly highlight the relationship between gender and strategy in the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador.

Marriage for the ‘New Woman’ from the Lord's Resistance Army: Experiences of female ex-abductees in Acholi region of Uganda

A number of studies have documented and analyzed forced marriage patterns and realities of girls within the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). However, the impact of wartime abduction, captivity and forced marriage on forging and sustaining post-LRA marriage relationships has been under-researched. This article contributes to addressing this gap by examining how stigma against female LRA ex-abductees influences their prospects for choices in marriage as they seek to reintegrate in communities of Uganda. Drawing on findings from Acholi area of northern Uganda, the article discusses how cultural and traditional perspectives stigmatize female ex-abductees, considered as ‘unacceptable’, ‘stained’ and therefore ‘unmarriageable’. The findings suggest that stigma adversely affects access to key community relationships such as marriage, thereby hindering social and economic opportunities for recovery and reintegration among the female ex-abductees in Uganda.

Pharmacoeconomics of Antimalarials in Private-for-Profit (PFP) Drug-Outlets in Gulu and Kitgum Towns, Northern Uganda.

Clinically-diagnosed malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Uganda accounting for 25 to 40% of outpatients, 15 to 20% of all hospital admissions, and 9 to 14% of all hospital deaths. This situation was exacerbated by The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion in northern Uganda which completely ran down the health care system. While malaria remains the number one killer disease in northern Uganda, antimalarials are lacking in the public health facilities. Consequently, Private-for-profit drug-outlets have come up to help bridge the gap. However, the cost-effectiveness and treatment outcome ratings of antimalarials are not clear. Objective: To assess the pharmacoeconomics of malaria treatment in Private-for-profit (PFP) drug-outlets in Gulu Municipality and Kitgum Town Council. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study sites were registered drug outlets. Study participants were drug-outlet owners, their employees, and malaria patients. We employed both purposive and random sampling methods to select the study participants. Data were collected using questionnaires and analysed using the SPSS computer package. Up to 91.1% of the respondents indicated that antimalarials are expensive. The prices varied from less than 5,000 to over 20,000 Ugandan shillings per dose (Exchange rate: 1$ = Ush 2,650). Fansidar and chloroquine were rated as being relatively cheap and ACTs expensive (Ush 11,000 to 15,000). Duration of treatment, frequency of administration, needles and syringes, raised the cost of some medicines. Most patients preferred cheap medicines (76.2%); those with low administration frequencies (77.5%); and those with short treatment duration (95%). Most patients (80.9%) buy antimalarials without testing, while 66.6% do not buy full doses. The cost benefit analysis of the use of antimalarials is unfavourable. The unit price of the medicines, their irrational use and the lack of professionals in the outlets together add up to high overall costs and poor treatment outcomes.

How 'The Urge to Kill' Feels: Articulations of Emic 'Appetitive Aggression' Experiences Among Former Forcefully Recruited Children and Youth in the Acholi Region of Northern Uganda.

Based on 10months of fieldwork in the Acholi region of northern Uganda among youth and adults who were forcefully recruited into the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) during the war, this article provides qualitative details to research on 'appetitive aggression.' Through two case-stories the article unfolds first person articulations of how 'appetitive aggression' is experienced as 'the urge to kill' and how it relates to the emic Acholi spiritual concept of 'cen'; a local Luo expression used to describe places and human beings possessed by evil spirits. The analysis illuminates what the individual and social implications of 'the urge to kill' and 'cen' entail for two Acholi men; first in a militia and then in a civil post-war context. The analysis then relates these findings to soldier experiences across cultures and time periods. While our analysis supports the findings in 'appetitive aggression' studies that appetitive aggression serves as a resilient protective factor against developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study documents that once the former forcefully recruited return to civilian life, 'appetitive aggression' and 'the urge to kill' precipitate individual and at times lethal social and moral complications in a fragile post-war community. Thus, the article argues that appetitive aggression and the emic perceptions and experiences of it among the local population are essential to consider in studies, processes and programs targeting demobilization, rehabilitation, reconciliation and re-integration.

Dirty things: spiritual pollution and life after the Lord’s Resistance Army

ABSTRACTIn post-war northern Uganda (as elsewhere), the reintegration of ex-combatants into their home communities is an ongoing process that involves long-term social and spiritual labour. The “re” of “reintegration,” however, might falsely assume a static and cohesive Acholi cosmology within which the parameters of such labours are clearly defined. Pathways taken with the goal of lessening suffering caused by war are tread by Acholi civilians and ex-combatants alike, and the ways former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters attempt to alleviate spiritual distress illuminate wider struggles for moral authority in everyday life. These practices are embedded in cosmologies which, though predating the 20 years of violent upheaval that ended in 2006, are sites of contestation where the politics of belief and doubt are played out. Drawing on insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork over the last decade, we focus here on targeted research from January to August 2014 with former LRA individuals who were part of a bigger study of clients at an ex-combatant reception centre. We explore how these persons have experienced, described, and responded to the suffering caused by ajwani (“dirty things”) – the stuff of a polluted cosmos. We further discuss the politics of “belief” and doubt in contemporary Acholi. The labour of ex-combatants and their communities to alleviate spiritual suffering demonstrates how ritual practices both challenge and uphold the power of moral authorities. In the wider context of post-war sociality in Acholi, effective and socially acceptable alleviation of spiritual suffering is contested, processual, and highly constrained by material resources and perceptions of ritual legitimacy. The practices of belief and doubt are not only a matter of metaphysics or ontology, but of shifts in worldly power.

“There's No Thing as a Whole Story”: Storytelling and the Healing of Sexual Violence Survivors among Women and Girls in Acoliland, Northern Uganda

AbstractStorytelling has become an important and acceptable tool among academics and professional peace‐builders. Storytelling can be therapeutic, especially since it assists survivors and the society in transition to come to terms with a traumatic past. It has been included as a part of transitional justice mechanisms which have assisted in the area of truth‐finding and accountability. It has been useful for peace‐building in communities that are deeply rooted in conflict and, therefore, has been encouraged within the last decade in a number of countries around the world. Consequently, this paper is a critical exploration of the discursive links between sexual violence and storytelling in war and peace. The focus is on Acoli women and girls in Acoliland, northern Uganda, who have primarily been impacted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) group of Joseph Kony. Their stories of trauma, resilience, and courage in the face of terror have not been properly acknowledged. Using women and girls of the Acoli community in northern Uganda as an example, this paper aims to begin a discussion on the role of storytelling in the healing of sexual violence survivors. Informed by the storytelling discourse, the paper argues that constructive storytelling exercises can provide an avenue for survivors of sexual violence to acknowledge trauma, attain healing, build resilience, and counter the violent narrative of the group. However, this study also finds that storytelling as a peace‐building tool falls short of transforming gender relations. Finally, the paper proposes and designs a storytelling program.

Trusting Former Rebels: An Experimental Approach to Understanding Reintegration after Civil War

The stability of many post-conflict societies rests on the successful reintegration of former soldiers. We use a set of behavioural experiments to study the effects of forced military service for a rebel group (the Lord's Resistance Army) on trust and trustworthiness in Northern Uganda. We present evidence that soldiers did not self-select nor were systematically screened by rebels. We find that the experience of soldiering increases individual trustworthiness and community engagement, especially among those who soldiered during early age. We find no evidence of mistrust or preference-based discrimination against ex-soldiers among unrelated members of receiving communities. Parents of ex-soldiers trust ex-soldiers more and expect them to be more trustworthy, a sign that they are aware of the behavioural difference. These results suggest that the impact of child soldiering on social behaviour is not necessarily detrimental. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

“What kept me going”: A qualitative study of avoidant responses to war-related adversity and perpetration of violence by former forcibly recruited children and youth in the Acholi region of northern Uganda

This qualitative study investigates what, according to 36 former forcibly recruited women and men, enabled them to “keep on going” during and after their forced recruitment in the twenty-year-long civil war in northern Uganda. Furthermore, the study conveys the ways most of the former forcibly recruited kept on going and today cope with ongoing war-related adversity and difficult reintegration processes without relying on psycho-social intervention. Thirty-five of the 36 women and men were forcibly recruited when they were children by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from the Acholi region of northern Uganda. Over the course of five visits to the Acholi region from 2012 to 2016, 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork was carried out involving interviews and participant observation. The 36 Acholi women and men shared how they experienced and responded to suffering from brutal torture and being forced to perpetrate often lethal violence against fellow Acholi who had tried to escape the LRA. The article provides an overview of the responses to this war-related adversity and the results document how avoidant coping is the preferred and most common coping response among the 36 former forcibly recruited women and men in this study. We take an interdisciplinary approach to discussing how these avoidant coping responses resonate with psycho-traumatology research on responses to war-related trauma and with conceptualizations of resilience. We end with the argument that avoidant responses to war-related adversity, when faced in clinical and diagnostic settings, should not be understood exclusively from a biomedical perspective: Responses to war-related adversity must be carefully investigated in collaboration with the human beings who have experienced the war-related adversity and based on integrative and emic approaches that consider the locally situated notions of how to cope with adversity and “keep on going” in their own right.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among child perpetrators and victims of violence from the Northern Uganda civil war: Findings from the WAYS study

War experiences are known risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other poor psychosocial outcomes. This study aimed to assess the extent to which perpetrating violence (operationalised as intentional and unintentional killing or mutilation) and being a victim of violence (operationalised as being a victim of violence, e. g., witnessing violence, injuries, torture) predict PTSD and other psychosocial outcomes independently in war-affected youth of Northern Uganda. Data on war experiences, PTSD, psychosocial problems, and socio-demographic characteristics were collected from the youth formerly abducted by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at baseline (mean age = 22.39 years; SD = 10.47) and at follow-up (mean age = 23.52 years; SD = 9.28) using self-report questionnaires. On average, the participants spent 3.13 years in captivity (SD = 2.99) and were abducted at 14.14 years of age (SD = 4.21). Regression models were fitted to predict PTSD and psychosocial outcomes from perpetrating violence controlling for being a victim of violence and demographic characteristics. Thirty-seven percent (n = 168) reported killing or being responsible for killing while in rebel captivity. After adjusting for being a victim of violence, perpetrating violence remained a statistically significant predictor of PTSD and poor psychosocial outcomes such as depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, psychotic symptoms, and conduct problems. Among war-affected youth returning from LRA captivity, perpetrating violence may just be as toxic a risk factor for PTSD and other psychosocial outcomes as being a victim of violence. Mental health workers should consider both the effects of being a victim of violence and perpetrating violence in treatment planning.

Living with the Lord’s Resistance Army

During the period 1986 through the mid-2000s,var ious rebel movements arose in Acholiland in northern Uganda to struggle against the National Resistance government of Yoweri Museveni who himself had come to power in January 1986 after overthrowing the regime of Tito Okello Lutwa. Of these rebel movements, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony was the most notorious and its activities plunged northern Uganda into a civil war with devastating consequences. Whereas it began as a struggle for political inclusion of the Acholi, the LRA carried out massacres, lootings, mutilations and abductions against the very people that it claimed to fight for.

The AU Task Forces: an African response to transnational armed groups

ABSTRACTThis article examines the Task Forces created by the African Union (AU) to address the security threats posed by Boko Haram and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It argues that these Task Forces are well suited to address transnational armed groups whose ambiguous political goals and extreme violence make traditional conflict resolution ineffective. Although the Task Forces fall within the AU's collective security mandate and broadly within the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), their distinct characteristics make it more capable of addressing these new cross-border threats. Their reliance on nationally funded and directed militaries also allow the Task Forces to fulfil both the goals of the AU and the interests of the regimes that take leadership roles within these structures.

“Survival Mode”: Rebel Resilience and the Lord’s Resistance Army

ABSTRACTTo date, scholarly work on armed groups has seldom considered the notion of rebel resilience, or the factors that enable these groups to survive despite time, military pressure, and the myriad contingent events of civil war. In an effort to develop an explanatory framework for resilience as a distinct outcome of civil war and rebellion, this article examines the conditions under which the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has persisted for nearly three decades. Based on fieldwork and original research, the article explains the LRA’s resilience in light of the group’s organizational structure and resource self-sufficiency, which have been well suited for the borderlands of East and Central Africa. The LRA is a key case of rebel resilience. It is important because it sheds light on the organizational foundations of armed groups, the relationship between resources and rebellion, and the broader study of conflict duration and termination. Understanding the sources of the LRA’s resilience can inform efforts to end such insurgencies.

Child soldiering on trial: an interdisciplinary analysis of responsibility in the Lord's Resistance Army

‘How can we tell what happened to us? There are no words to describe what we have witnessed. What we saw, what we heard, what we did, and how it changed our lives, is beyond measure. We were murdered, raped, amputated, tortured, mutilated, beaten, enslaved and forced to commit terrible crimes.’ (Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report for the Children of Sierra Leone)

Girl soldiers with Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda fighting for survival: experiences of young women abducted by LRA

ABSTRACTFor this study the narratives of 16 young women who had served as child soldiers with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda were collected. They had spent between 2 months and 16 years in captivity before managing to escape. All of them spent time at the Gulu Support the Children Organization Rehabilitation centre, from which 12 had moved back into their communities. The narratives start with their capture, the time with the LRA, the escape and the returning and reintegrating. Even though the narratives included appalling stories about the time in captivity, the participants expressed hope for the future and focused on giving their children a good start in life. We used Antonovsky’s theories about ‘sense of coherence’ coupled with resilience theory to discern the factors that helped these young women cope. The participants all managed to leave captivity. We have no comparative information about those who are still in captivity.

Marginalisation, insurgency and civilian insecurity: Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army

Recent years have seen a dramatic escalation in the levels and intensity of violence associated with the northern Nigerian Islamist group, commonly referred to as ‘Boko Haram’. The deliberate and brutal targeting of civilians has been an increasingly pronounced feature of this conflict, contributing to acute civilian vulnerability. Often ascribed to the specific ideological and ethno-religious configuration of Boko Haram, we argue that this violence is similar to that of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), tactically and in the evolution of both groups over time. In addition, violence inflicted on civilians by both groups has necessitated complex strategies of civilian navigation of insecurity risks, including the establishment of informal local security providers. Drawing on both quantitative conflict event data, and qualitative sources, we present a comparative analysis of Boko Haram and the LRA to demonstrate the importance of common strategies of group mobilisation, evolution in rhetoric and tactics, and armed state and non-state responses to insurgency, in driving violence against civilians in particular. The findings reflect the importance of shared local and historical conditions in producing violence; and placing civilian protection, and the multifaceted ways in which it is undermined, including by state responses, at the centre of peacebuilding theory and practice.

When war is better than peace: The post-conflict realities of children born of wartime rape in northern Uganda

This paper examines the realities and perspectives of a sample of 60 children born of wartime rape within the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and currently living in northern Uganda. These children were born to mothers who were abducted by the LRA, held captive for extended periods of time, repeatedly raped and impregnated. The paper explores the multiple challenges that these children face in the post-war period including, rejection, stigma, violence, socio-economic marginalization, and issues of identity and belonging. Participants underscored the profound violence and deprivation that they experienced while in LRA captivity. However, because of post-war marginalization, participants individually and collectively articulated that wartime was better than peacetime. Multiple systems of support are needed to ensure the rights and protection of these children and importantly, to address and reverse young people’s perceptions that “war is better than peace”.