• Around 25,000 children abducted and forced to fight
• Up to two million people living in overcrowded camps
• Thousands of people dead

Peace talks have finally brought hope of peace, to the people of northern Uganda, following a 20-year civil war.

Oxfam is working with displaced people in camps and towns. As people return home we will continue to support them to rebuild their lives.

In pictures: Oxfam in action

Learn more

• Situation overview
• Oxfam's response

An unimaginable situation

  My brother Geoffrey was abducted in 2001 when he was 14. He came back home after two years in the bush. He was seriously tortured until he became disturbed. Now Geoffrey says all his hopes have been lost. He is somehow older than he should be and he drinks now.

Joyce Aneno Oywelo, Amida camp (speaking Mar 06)

An internationally brokered ceasefire has been in place since August 2006. It brought an end to 20 years of hostilities between the Ugandan government and the rebel group, known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Ongoing peace talks are offering signs of a resolution to the conflict. Some people have made tentative moves back to their land. But it will take a final peace settlement to convince most of the 1.6 million* people still living in camps that it is safe enough to return.

• Oxfam's response to the conflict in Uganda

*correct June 07

Rebuilding

Even with sustained peace, the people of northern Uganda will have a huge task ahead of them to rebuild their lives.

• People have lost their homes, and their means of making a living. They have been reliant on humanitarian aid for survival for many years
• There has been a breakdown in family-life and cultural traditions, as a result of living in overcrowded camps, with little to do
• Abducted children will have experienced and perpetrated acts of extreme violence. They will need to be reintegrated into their communities
• There is a lack of basic facilities and infrastructure

International support

The people of northern Uganda will need support from the international community to help them recover.

Oxfam's response

We have been working in northern Uganda since 2000, supporting communities living in towns and camps.

We are:

• Providing water and sanitation facilities
• Providing health training, mosquito nets and basic hygiene equipment
• Initiating projects that allow people to provide for themselves, and look towards a positive future for their families
• Supporting partners that provide counselling to abducted children, returning to their communities

Pushing for change

We have been working at a national and international level raising awareness of the conflict in Uganda, and pushing for real action to be taken to end the twenty years of atrocities.

Should a peace settlement be reached we will continue to ensure that the international community commits to help the people of northern Uganda rebuild their lives.

Help support the people of northern Uganda: donate to Oxfam’s emergency work worldwide