I haven’t talked at all about the Mabira riots, despite the fact that half of every newspaper printed in Uganda in the last two weeks has been dedicated to them. Sorry, 27th Comrade. Didn’t mean to disappoint.
I want to write instead about what no one — absolutely no one — has been talking about: the latest spate of attacks and raids in northern Uganda.
Yesterday a friend from Gulu asked if I’d heard about what happened this month in Attiak: an ambush that left 8 dead and 45 injured. Nope, hadn’t heard about that.
What about the abductions in Paicho? Nope. The attack on a camp in Kitgum? No. Awac? Palaro? No and no.
So I got online today to see what had happened. Turns out, according to both Ugandan and international media, nothing. None of these were reported anywhere. The only thing I could find was a blog entry from a team of Dutch documentary filmmakers that corroborated some of what I’d heard.
I get it, sort of. Negotiations between the government and the LRA are scheduled to resume tomorrow, and reporting increased instability in northern Uganda isn’t the best way to instill faith in the peace process. Still — I’m surprised that no one has picked up on this.
In other news: Somalia’s gone to hell. Oh. And Boris Yeltsin’s dead.