[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
PATONGO, PADER, 3 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland declared the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda "the world's worst form of terrorism" during a visit on Saturday to a camp for internally displaced persons in Pader District.
"Conditions here are totally unacceptable. It has to change, because we believe people have to live a better life and have a better future," he said during a visit to Patongo camp, some 400 km north of the capital, Kampala. Egeland, who is on a four-nation, nine-day tour of conflict- and drought-ravaged East Africa, said there was a need to provide security to the almost two million people living at camps across northern Uganda.
"Nowhere in the world is there such a concentrated area where many people are being terrorised for such a long period of time," he said. "This is the epicentre of terror that merits more attention, more resources and more political and security involvement."
Egeland was hopeful that people were growing more aware of the crisis, both locally and internationally. "There is now a hope that we did not have before, because there is now attention in Uganda, in the region and in the world, with a will to change the situation. I am glad that the Security Council, though belatedly, is now giving more attention to the northern Uganda crisis," Egeland said.
For the past two decades, northern Uganda has been the scene of one of the most brutal civil wars, pitting government forces against rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who have terrorised and killed civilians, looted food and medicine from villages and abducted thousands of children to be used as fighters, porters and sex slaves.
A week before Egeland's visit, rebels killed a government soldier in a raid to steal food on the outskirts of Patongo, according to camp residents, who complained of widespread deprivation and fear. A joint report by 50 aid agencies working in northern Uganda, published on 30 February, said that some 146 people died each week in the region.
"Everybody has to do more; the government of Uganda has to do more. We are emphasising that the army has to provide real security for the people, not only when they are inside camps but also when they go out of these camps," Egeland said.
The envoy also met President Yoweri Museveni and discussed the possible appointment of a UN special envoy to northern Uganda, as well as a peace mission to the region, according to a statement issued after their meeting. Egeland said that Museveni favoured a regional representative rather than an envoy to the north, arguing that the problem had become regional. The talks also explored the possibility of involving the UN in the country's national reconciliation and the demilitarisation of the police and justice systems in the north.
Egeland's tour of the region will also include visits to Kenya, Chad and Sudan.
[ENDS]