Background of the Conflict
Short Version:
For the past 25 years, Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army have been attacking communities and abducting thousands of children to fight in his militia. Though he began fighting to free Northern Uganda from the rule of a Southern President, he lost the support of the people of the North many years ago. To fill his ranks, he began his abductions. Soon, parents were sending their children miles away to local cities each and every night to keep them from being abducted by Kony's soldiers during the night. These night commuters are the subject of the original Invisible Children documentary. The alternative was for kids anywhere from 5-15 years old to be abducted and immediately indoctrinated and brainwashed by extreme violence. This would often involve killing the child's family in front of them, or even forcing them to participate. Girls could expect to become a soldier's concubine.
Since the original documentary, the LRA has been forced out of Northern Uganda and into Southern Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The LRA is continuing its attacks and abductions. What is worse for these new communities is that they do not share common language with the primarily Ugandan LRA, and have no idea who or what the LRA is. The LRA preys on remote villages who have no way to communicate with one another, except by foot or bike.
Working with local leaders, Invisible Children developed what they call a protection plan for the affected communities. Essentially, it involves connecting villages with a network of high frequency radios, which allows them to communicate, warn each other of LRA sightings and attacks, and call for help. They are also taking steps to directly weaken the ranks of the LRA. Since most of the fighters are abducted and fighting against their will, the only thing that keeps them fighting is fear- fear of Joseph Kony, but also fear that if they escape they will not be accepted back into their homes due to what they have been forced to do. Invisible Children, working again with local communities as well as the UN, is getting radio broadcasts and flyers disseminated explaining that if LRA members turn themselves in, they will be given amnesty, rehabilitated at the region's first Rehabilitation Center that is being built, and returned to their families. See more at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/protectionplan.
In the meantime, Invisible Children has been working to rebuild schools and libraries in Northern Uganda, as well as award scholarships to Ugandan children who otherwise wouldn't have been able to get an education.
I'll be posting a more in depth explanation here shortly.
