UGANDA: Woman Hopes Plight as Orphan in Uganda can Help Bring Peace

All Scovia Angiro, 22, had ever known was a cramped hut she was forced to live in with her widowed mom and seven siblings in northern Uganda, where insurgents terrorize the area.

"We could barely have something to eat. We would starve," she said.

Angiro was in El Paso on Sunday at El Pisto Food and Drink to put a face to a war in the Great Lakes region of Africa where kids have become the most vulnerable victims. She was part of a tour by Invisible Children, a group that seeks to disarm insurgents and restore peace by investing in northern Uganda's education.

Angiro is one of thousands of orphans who have lived through traumatic experiences in the war zones of central Africa. Her father, an elementary school teacher, was killed when she was 3 months old by a rebel group she can't identify. Her mother, a peasant, was left to take care of eight.

The conflict in central Africa stems from the insurgence of the Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony. The cult-like rebel group carries out mass murders, mutilations and abduction of children to join its army, United Nations reports said. The attacks span more than two decades.

"It is the most evil group I have ever seen," Angiro said as she narrated some of the ways the armed insurgency tortured people.

Angiro said rebels cut off people's lips, ears, legs and even open the bellies of pregnant women and tear their babies out.
Fearing brutal attacks, 1.6 million Ugandans have been displaced by the government to crowded unsanitary camps since the early 2000s.

Even in the camps, Angiro said, people ran to hide in the bush some nights when they heard the Lord's Resistance Army were in the area. She grew up near Lira Town in the camp of Barlonyo, where rebel attacks killed 200 civilians in February 2004.

"We passed through a lot of traumatic experiences," she said.

Angiro went to a high school that later became the base for Kony's rebel group.

"It was so hard," she said. "I lived to see many of my friends being killed. Many of them I saw being abducted."

Peace talks helped many return home in 2008, including Angiro's family. But the humanitarian crisis continues.

Despite Angiro's harsh youth, she sees hope in war-torn northern Uganda.

Angiro received one of Invisible Children's scholarships to attend Gulu University. She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in public administration and is mentored by a 26-year-old woman, also of Uganda.

"As time went by and I thought about the mess, I told myself 'Maybe the leaders we have are not doing enough,'" she said.
Yoweri Museveni has been president of Uganda since 1986, about the time the insurgency movement began. Museveni eliminated multi-party politics, that were later restored, and extended constitutional limits on presidential terms to remain in power.

Anne Magers, who works at El Pisto Food and Drink, wanted to host the advocacy group in El Paso because she is passionate about the cause of Invisible Children.

"It's something you can't look away from," she said.

Angiro, a humble young woman, believes in compassion in spite of the cruel life she has lived.

"My mom sometimes asks me 'If they were to bring the person who killed your dad, what would you do?'" she said. "I would tell him 'You did me bad,' but I would forgive him.'"

Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.