Causes for the Civil War in Northern Uganda

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 2,0, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Politikwissenschaft), course: State and Non-State Actors in Violent Conflict, language: English, abstract: Uganda, a landlocked country in Eastern Africa, has struggled with violent conflicts since the end of colonial rule in 1962. The emergence of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in 1987 in the northern region is one of the infamous examples of the violence the country had to endure. Since 2006, the LRA is no threat to Uganda anymore, as the movement withdraw to the neighbouring countries and has lost a significant amount of strength. Several scholars offered different explanations as to why the LRA was able to gain their power and remained to terrorize the Ugandan population for such a long period of time. Many believe that the spiritual system is the main driver behind the high number of fighters and the success of their leader Joseph Kony. But the use of extreme violence against the government military forces as well as against the civilian population is one of the aspects which let the LRA maintain their crusade. However, the strongest argument lies within the north-south divide of the country, which led to inequality and can be seen as one of the main reasons for the conflict. This paper will examine the causes for civil wars with the focus on the conflict in northern Uganda.