The Juba Peace Process, the two-year negotiations aimed at ending the war in Uganda, has ended with rebel leader Joseph Kony refusing to sign the final agreement. Though we've made incredible progress in the past two years, It appears that we have reached the end of the road for this process.
It is now more important than ever that we keep up the pressure on our leaders to end this war. These peace talks produced a surge of helpful attention from our leaders, and they will be tempted t...read more
The Juba Peace Process, the two-year negotiations aimed at ending the war in Uganda, has ended with rebel leader Joseph Kony refusing to sign the final agreement. Though we've made incredible progress in the past two years, It appears that we have reached the end of the road for this process.
It is now more important than ever that we keep up the pressure on our leaders to end this war. These peace talks produced a surge of helpful attention from our leaders, and they will be tempted to now turn their attention elsewhere. Returning to the neglect and indifference of the past would have catastrophic consequences for the people of northern Uganda.
We cannot afford to have that happen. The stakes are too high.
Even though they failed to achieve a signed final agreement, significant progress was still made. What had been been labeled as one of the worst and most neglected humanitarian crises in the world just a few years ago has seen transformation. Nearly a million people began to leave displacement camps and return home and children were no longer forced to commute at night to stay safe. These gains must be sustained and consolidated.
Despite this progress in northern Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army is now operating in the border regions between three countries: the Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. Abductions of young children are once again occurring, and we have good reason to believe they will only increase in the coming weeks.
As the rebel group prepares to return to war, we must urge our leaders to fight harder than ever to achieve peace.
For those of you who have worked so hard to help achieve peace in Uganda, I know that this news is extremely discouraging. But with so much progress made and so much still hanging in the balance, now is not the time to give up hope. Successful peace processes require long-term vision and persistence. Together, we can be the factor that prevents history from repeating itself. We can keep the attention of our leaders on this issue and keep pushing them to do everything they can for peace.
There are no alternatives.
