Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 26, 2005

Women displayed by LRA fighting line up to draw water from a borehole

The Lord's Resistance Army is a rebel paramilitary group operating in northern Uganda, and as of February 2005 is engaged in an armed conflict against the Ugandan government. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself a spirit medium and apparently wishes to establish a state based on his unique interpretation of Biblical millenarianism. The rebels have been accused of many atrocities in the area. It is estimated that around 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the group since 1987 for use as as soldiers and sex slaves. LRA practices such as mutilation, enforced prostitution and enlisting children under the age of 15 into armed groups are war crimes. The group abducts its members primarily from the Acholi people, but it lacks widespread support among the Acholis, who have been the victims of many of its tactics. The insurgency has been mainly contained to the region known as Acholiland, consisting of the districts of Kitgum, Gulu, and Pader, though since 2002 violence has overflowed into other districts, including Lira, Apac and Adjumani. (more...)

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