One of the horrible side effects of the war in Iraq is that it is diverting attention away from other crises in the world that are as bad, if not worse. One such place is the East African country of Uganda, which as I type this, is embroiled in the worst civil war of any nation on Earth. How bad is it? According to a report compiled by the UN in conjunction with over 50 humanitarian groups:
The current rate of death from the war in northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq following the Allied invasion.
source
In fact, as Jan Egeland, UN Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs said yesterday, the situation in Uganda is the worst humanitarian crisis facing the world at this moment . Even more staggering was Egeland's assertion that Uganda is home to "the world's worst forms of terror" . As the situation in Uganda gets worse and worse, the United States and the rest of the world should remember the lesson it learned 12 years ago in Uganda's neighbor, Rwanda - you can't ignore Africa.
How bad is it and why should we care, especially in terms of our "war on terror"?
The war in Uganda has been going on for over 18 years, since 1986. In those 20 years:
2 million displaced people
25,000 children sold as sex slaves
14,000 deaths, largely a result of torture or mutilation
And things are getting worse. Despite repeated attempts by mediators within the Ugandan goverment and outside groups, including teams from the United Nations, the situation is deteriorating. Nearly 90% of children in Northern Uganda are living without one parent. The rates of murder and kidnapping have escalated dramatically in the past year. Many European countries, including the United Kingdom, have begun withholding financial aid to the country until the civil war in the country ceases. Even more frightening, though, is the possibility that the destabilization of Uganda could lead to a full-scale regional destabilization, impacting the fragile state of its neighbors such as Kenya and Rwanda.
Ugandan stability is key to regional stability. Uganda's precarious location, bordering the Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya, means that it can deeply impact, both positively and negatively, the entire East Africa region. And with the already fragile state of places like the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Africa needs a stable, peaceful, democratic anchor in order to prevent a situation such as happened in West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone, Cote D'Ivoire, and Liberia. But why should the United States care about Africa when it's got its hands full in the Middle East?
The 1998 US embassy bombings in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi, perpetrated by Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, occurred in two of the five countries neighboring Uganda. In those bombings, 220 people were killed and over 5,000 seriously wounded. More significantly, however, is the fact that the bombings of the two US embassies in East Africa were the 2nd most deadly attacks by Al Qaeda in its history.
The fact of the matter is this: the United States could care less about what happens in Africa, especially what happens in a small nation like Uganda in East Africa. But it should. If the U.S. is serious about putting an end to global terrorism and keeping American's safe, it can not ignore what happens in Africa. As Egeland pointed out, the worst forms of terror are already happening in Uganda. And terror against Africans is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from terror against Americans. The United States can't afford to keep its eyes closed. In fact, it's simply irresponsible to do so. The United State's history of ignoring Africa has indirectly lead to millions of deaths over the past 50 years, but American citizens have largely been spared. However, if the US continues to ignore situations like the terrible civil war in Uganda, this will change. And if a moral obligation to help a people in need isn't enough to put the US into action, maybe the threat of more American deaths will.