© InfoConflict between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an armed militia formed in 1987, terrorised the people of northern Uganda for two decades.
Hundreds of thousands of children were abducted and forced into combat, some even as young as five years old.
At the peak of the conflict, 1.8 million people had fled from their villages and were living in overcrowded camps. Mortality rates in the camps were high as people faced major problems getting access to safe water, sanitation, shelter and health services.
On 26 August 2006, the government and LRA signed a truce, although peace has remained fragile. From 2006, people began leaving the camps and going back to their villages, but many returned to find everything had been destroyed.
The Red Cross was the only organisation able to respond to this humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda without armed escorts. Our neutrality and independence neutrality and independence enabled us to help vulnerable people whose lives had been torn apart by conflict.
Read about how we helped people affected by the conflict