Uganda's Nightcommuters and The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
One of the more devastating stories I've ever covered for the Oprah Show took me to the northern region of Uganda in east Africa. Since 1987, Northern Uganda has been plagued by a civil war between government troops and a rebel army called the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA is led by a man —Joseph Kony — who thinks he's God. Most of Kony's army consists of young boys who were abducted from their villages. Kony operates with a sickening level of perversion. When LRA troops raid a village they force boys to kill their family members and burn down their homes. Kony wants to ensure that the boys have no one to whom they can run and no where to escape. He brainwashes the boys and teaches them how to kill. It's estimate that xx boys have been abducted and forced to become LRA soldiers.
When I visited Northern Uganda in January 2006, the situation were so severe that every single night, thousands and thousands of kids would leave their villages as it got dark to seek refuge in the cities. It was utterly shocking to see so many children walking, six or more miles a day. So many children were making the trek that they became known as "night commuters." It had been going on for many years before my visit and when the kids first started leaving their villages, they would end up sleeping on verandas or in front of stores. By the time of our visit, a number of non-governmental agencies had set up secured camps for the kids to sleep. In the morning, the thousands of kids would walk back home, only to head back to town as soon as night began to fall.
The Government of Uganda is said to be sitting down with leaders of the LRA at the end of February to see if they can once and for all, end this long running conflict that has taken the lives of so many.
