A great tragedy unfolds everyday in northern Uganda, where for nearly 20 years now residents have lived in fear of brutal attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army – a rebel group that is notorious for abducting children and forcing them to become combatants or sex slaves. The elusive insurgents are also feared for their practice of hacking off body parts from civilians, turning them into living warnings to people not to support the government.
I traveled to the region recently to meet some of the thousands of children who trek from their isolated homes every night to take shelter in urban centers in an effort to escape the violence and possible abduction.
I also met some of the women who had their lips and ears mutilated by the insurgents and heard tales of their horrific experience.


More than 1.5 million people have fled their homes to escape attacks by rebels or on the orders of the government that is keen to deny food and support to the insurgents. The people now live in sprawling, overcrowded camps made up of conical, thatched huts, where disease and hunger kill 1,000 people a week more than would otherwise be expected to die in the region.

Doreen Aciro, above left, is a victim of the horrific mutilation. She was abducted
when she went to fetch firewood outside her camp, that is similar to the one above. The rebel commander, who was between 17 and 20 years old, then pulled out a razor blade and gave it to a 10-year-old fighter and ordered him to cut her ears and then her lips.
The cultlike Lord's Resistance Army is led by a shadowy figure, Joseph Kony, and made up of the remnants of a northern insurgency that began after southerner Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986. Its numbers are believed few, but it has thrived on creating fear. The government also has been accused of atrocities, and of herding civilians into camps to ensure the rebels find no supporters in the countryside.