Glenna Gordon

Photography: Northern Uganda Conflict

In April 2008, journalists, diplomats, and government officials all waited on the Sudan-Congo border for rebel warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, to appear and sign the final peace treaty. He did not, and lasting peace remains elusive in northern Uganda. The LRA is now active in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kony's whereabouts remain unknown.

At the height of the conflict between the Ugandan government and rebels Lord's Resistance Army, more than two million people were displaced, forced into squalid camps and dependent on handouts from donors. Now, despite the failed peace talks, people are starting to rebuild homes closer to their original villages, the central town of Gulu is coming back to life, but the legacy of three generations living in a war zone remains. Children born of couplings from abducted civilians and LRA commanders are still discriminated against, and few economic opportunities exist for them or other ethnic Acholis in the region.

A Sudanese solider smokes a cigarette at failed peace talks.
  
Peace talks wind down when rebel leader Joseph Kony doesn't materialize.
   
People begin to rebuild homes as norhtern Uganda becomes safer.
     
  
Women abducted bythe LRA who escape face a life providing for their families alone.
   
Children of abducted civilians and LRA commanders still suffer discrimination.
   
Children of abducted civilians and LRA commanders still suffer discrimination.
     
  
In Gulu, the main town in northern Uganda, economic regrowth is beginning despite failed peace talks.
  
Many Acholis have left the north and come to Kampala in hopes of a better life, but find only poverty and meager wages crushing rocks in a quarry.
  
Women and children crush rocks all day for just pennies.
     
  
Living conditions are stark in the quarry.
   
Women and children crush rocks all day for just pennies.
   
Women and children crush rocks all day for just pennies.
     
  
Women and children crush rocks all day for just pennies.
   
  
Children of abducted civilians and LRA commanders still suffer discrimination.
     
  
   
  
Few people think peace talks will bring an end to the ongoing conflict.
     
  
Still, there is hope for a peaceful future.