Obama Signs LRA and Northern Uganda Recovery Act
By Rebecca Harshbarger–
Yesterday afternoon, President Obama signed a bill that focuses on fighting the LRA and rebuilding northern Uganda. Larry Downing, Reuters.
Yesterday, at 5 P.M., President Obama signed the Lord’s Resistance Army and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, after it overwhelmingly passed in Congress last week. The legislation is a victory for grassroots organizations like Resolve Uganda, Invisible Children, and the Genocide Intervention network, who have been campaigning on behalf of northern Uganda for years. Obama said it would be “vigorously” implemented.
The act comes at a critical time, when the Lord’s Resistance Army has escalated its attacks in the DR Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan. Although the Ugandan and Congolese governments continue to maintain that the LRA is largely decimated, the armed group continues to kill hundreds of civilians, abduct many women, and conscript countless children into its forces, according to Human Rights Watch. Their report, “Trail of Death” details the terror the LRA has unleashed on northeastern Congolese communities, drawing upon 128 interviews.
The bill pushes President Obama to come up with a strategy to permanently end the LRA conflict within 180 days, and increases humanitarian aid for LRA-affected communities in the DR Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan. It also allocates $10 million a year to support reconciliation and justice processes in Uganda, and threatens to cut foreign aid to Uganda if it does not implement the Northern Uganda Development and Recovery Act, which the government introduced in 2007.
Obama promised to implement the bill “vigorously,” and expressed concern for LRA-affected communities, particularly those where children had been abducted and conscripted, according to reporting by Reuters
Resolve Uganda's Paul Ronan visited this LRA-affected community in the Central African Republic. Paul Ronan.
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OMG!!! ITS ABOUT TIME! i am so excited that this has finally happened. IT made my day and i hope it helps raise even more awareness!
Glad to hear it! Eager to see what policy Obama chooses during the next 180 days.
[...] Monday, President Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, the culmination of years of campaigning by [...]
LET AMERICA ALSO COME IN BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED TO MI IM HAPPY JAMES KASESE
when u are a man ,u need to stand like any other man why should people suffer like that imagine others people sleeping in good houses while others are in the bush my mother used to cry when ever she used to had of people being killed in the north when even we ware not northerners .so my mother also used to fill some pain like when the repents of manege have died in that war kasese ……..james baluku in kasese district
most of our people are now affected and infected by HIVandAIDs because of the hard conditions they live in and to mi that konyo if i con see him with my necked aye i don’t now what can happen
It is good the American President has come out. For years this war was just left hanging! I personally have been abducted from a secondary school in Gulu, tortured and indoctrinated. On behalf of all the former abductees, i wish our views could be ask.
Thanks