Disclaimer: I only spent one week studying Uganda. I've spent more than 2 months in Rwanda and I'm still trying to figure out what's happening here, and Uganda is a much more complicated situation. That said, let me tell you what I know, because I'm sure you know little more about Uganda than I did going in.
While Rwanda only has 3 ethnic groups, the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa, Uganda has many. Like Rwanda, during colonialism Uganda was also subjected to a policy of divide-and-rule, though by the British and not the Belgians, which created a lot of the divisions that still cause problems today. Throughout all of Uganda's independent history, the president (which almost always gains power violently) has favored his own ethnic group and those of his supporters, developing his own home region while leaving others behind. The Acholi people are the primary occupants of Northern Uganda, which has been most affected by the conflict. Unfortunately for the Acholi, they fought for the previous president, President Okello, who was overthrown more than 20 years ago by the current president, Yoweri Museveni. There region has been neglected and impoverished, which is what led for Joseph Kony to start is rebellion. Kony is an Acholi, and not the first to raise a rebellion against Museveni, though he has undoubtedly become the most famous. Kony claims to be a prophet, saying that the Holy Spirit prompted him to begin is rebellion and advises him in its continuation. When he first began is rebellion almost two decades ago, Kony had the support of many Acholi, but he lost it when Museveni cracked down on the region. When his people stopped giving him supplies and even began to alert the army to his presense, he turned against them. He has since gained international notorietey, and the top spot on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court, for the way he has mutilated his own people. Women who raise the alarm of rebel presense have their lips cut off, men who attempt to fight have their arms cut off, and anyone who refuses to obey his commands have their ears cut off. He has also become infamous for his use of child soldiers; once he no longer had willing recruits, he took to raiding schools during the day and villages at night, kidnapping children and making them members of his army. This has created an interesting dynamic in post-conflict restoration in Northern Uganda, because the rebels who have caused so much hurt and elicited so much anger from the Acholi are also their own children, and they want them back.
At the height of Kony's rebellion, Museveni decided that the best way to weaken his opponent would be to rob him of the supplies and recruits he found in the villages. He responded by forcing all of the Acholi into camps, refusing to let them farm because the rebels might take the crops. This decimated the entire population, robbing them of their livelyhood and the space and resources to practice their culture. This did not stop Kony. In fact, concentrating all of the Acholi in the camps gave him a one-stop shop for all the recruits and supplies he could want. When we were in Uganda I often heard people voice the theory that Museveni did it deliberately to impoverish the Acholi. He has often seemed less than enthusiastic about ending the conflict, instead prefering to allow one of the groups who supports him the least to kill each other. In the 90s he even launched a major military offensive against the rebels days after Kony had promised to come out of the bush and end the war. He had asked for only 6 months to demobilize, and instead Museveni said that if he hadn't come out in 7 days he would attack. That was the closest the war has ever been to ending.
For most of his career as a rebel, Kony was supported by the government of Sudan. They disliked Museveni, who supported rebels in South Sudan, so they supported Kony for years before their relationship with Museveni improved. It is widely believed that they are still supplying Kony, though not nearly as much or as regularly as they used to. Combine that with a major government offensive and the help of the international community, and Kony and his rebels have gone on the run. It is believed that he is somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic, and Museveni has sent troops into the bush to find him.
As long as Kony is still at large, the war is not over for Nothern Uganda. However, since he has left the country they have been able to begin rebuilding. By the time we went to Uganda, most people had left the camps and have begun to rebuild their lives. Northern Uganda is still a very impoverished region, and they now face the challenges of reintegrating thousands of former abductees and child soldiers, of accepting them back into the community as unwilling participants in the violence while still somehow addressing the harm they have done. They are still trying to figure out which is the best way.
As I said, that is the sparknotes version, and perhaps even not a good one. I think sparknotes would be more informative, but I have yet to master the art of including everything I saw and learned into one blog post. Feel free to ask me about this when I get home.
(Which, by the way, is in 34 days. When did that happen?)
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