History of FONU
FONU came up with this NGO after seeing that people of Northern Uganda especially Lango, Acholi, Atesu, West Nile have past through a lot of problems since 1967 up to date from 1967 when Karamajong warriors raided the village of Orwamuge, Omoro, Adwari, Okwang all in Lango sub region over thirty men were killed, women raped, girls abducted and up to date some of the girls have not returned. In 1971 the dictator Idi Amin took over government from Dr. Apolo Milton Obote who was a Lango by tribe and who was the one who lead the country to independence. The eight years Amin was in power Lango suffered more because most of them were killed the high ranking army officers, highly educated officers, and some civil servants were killed most of them were murdered in cold bold and their remains were not recovered up to date. By that time they did not have access to stepping in town to asset medical care, shop for sugar and salt, etc. When you were seen in town you would be shot to death. When Dr. Apolo Milton Obote came back from exile to power in 1980-1985 Lango was on a recovering program but unfortunately Musevani started his Gorilla War that brought Lango back to problems because he would lay ambush on the way and wait for buses coming from Northern Uganda and those buses would be fired end up killing them. Okello Tito took over power in 1985 that took back the Langese to zero because there was a lot of killing and looting of properties from Lango sub region. Okello Tito was in power for six months and Musevani overthrew his government on the 26th of February 1986. From that time also most of the army officers that were Langese were killed some were put in life imprisonment for example Brigadia Smith Opon Acak was killed and many others. A rebel group was formed in Acholi sub region that there main are of operation was in Lango sub region. The first one was Olum Olum, Celibong, Gomoo led by the late Alice Lakwana that left very many people in Lango dead the last rebel group which is the Lord Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony that is the longest rebel group that has lasted in Africa. That one left very many homes when they abducted, killed very many people for that matter this led Lango sub region and Achole sub region into camps for very many years. We had over 249 camps in Lango sub region. 1.4 milion people were displaced and settled in camps, they would not have enough security, rebels would still follow the people in camps attack them and kill them abduct some of them for example on the 1st of July, 6th of July, 12th of July, 4th of August, 28th of August, 30th of August, 4th of September, 6th of September, 10th of September, 22nd of September all 2002 those were days that rebels attacked people in camps in Lango sub region. There were a lot of killing, looting, abducting, and raping which left Lango desperate. On the 11th of January, on the 9th of January, on the 13th of January, on the 19th of January, on the 20th of January 30 attacks were made in Lango sub region all in 2003. On the 11th of November it was reported that the LRA attacked and over ran a detached of UPDF which was based in Abia, Apala, Omoro, Okwang that all those were in Lira district. 34 UPDF soldiers lost their lives including left tenant and Moses Birimumaso. The Lord Resistance Army captured over a dozen of soldiers it is reported that the UPDF having been badly beaten rescued by the Arrow Group militia. It then followed that the LRA engaged both the UPDF/Arrow Group militia in a battle, which lasted up to three hours. When the dust finally settled, the bodies of 19 Arrow Group militias/UPDF soldiers (in addition to the UPDF’s earlier losses)were left on the battle scene. The Echo has since learnt that the LRA commander Charles Tabuley conducted the operation against the UPDF.Sources note that it is for the high casualty rate amongst the UPDF that the army has unleashed the so called pseudo-LRA force as a revenge measure against the civilian population. For that matter it made the UPDF soldiers to become desperate in fighting against the rebels and it has resulted in using bombs many of which that has been dropped on civilian population example are in Acolpii, Apala that ended up killing and injuring many civilians. TUPDF aircraft dropped substances (not conventional bombs) which given the unique injury caused and the smell/odor left in the area. In the early days of NRA/UPDF life in Northern Uganda, the UPDF went by the name of “Langungu-ngu”. Translated into English simply as “those who rape you whilst standing up”. Even men were sodomised. The assaults were carried out on such an organized scale that it was believed the purpose of these rapes was to spread the deadly HIV virus amongst the northern populace. Whatever the true motives, the assaults were to turn northern Uganda from an area in which there were hardly and cases of HIV/AIDS to an area which to date has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the country. On the 6th of October 2003, the UPDF mobile brigade came to Dure trading centre, which is situated 7 miles south of Kitgum. At around 6pm they ordered everybody to leave their homes. They brought out the women, elderly, children and the men-no one was left behind. They went ahead and separated the female from the male (including children). The male citizens were ordered to return to their home their womenfolk remained with the UPDF. In the morning of the 7th of October 2003 when the female citizens Dure (including young girls) returned to their homes, they told of their horror at the hands of the UPDF. They had all been brutally raped. A similar incident happen in Orom division in October 2003. A 72 year old woman by the name Ventorina Larian was raped by soldiers of the 89th division of the UPDF stationed in the area. The assaults against the civilian population of Orom had become so rampant that the deputy LC5 chairman, Mr. Dominic Balu issued an outcry about the activities of the UPDF in the area. It would seem “Langungu-gungu” had indeed landed. On the 21st of October 2003, the UPDF shot and killed Alfonsio Ojok who was in the group of seven men at around 6:30 other six were seriously wounded. This has been very common in the north despite all the crimes they were committing.
100 students of Aboke Girls School were abducted, five were killed, some of them came after some years, some came after ten year, some came after thirteen years, but four have not yet come up to date. In 1990, 70 of Apola secondary were abducted, 7 were killed all those ones were recruited as child soldiers some came back one came back last year with a rank of a captain he is called Obura, others are still under captivity. The same year students of Ngata National Teachers College, Aloi Secondary School girls were sexually harassed and boys were abducted and recruited as child soldiers. They were trained to do hostile things, murdering people, massacres of people. They were trained to slaughter people in the presence of their relatives and make the relatives to cook the dead people and eat them. For that matter people were now forced to leave villages and come to camps in order to let them acquire a fair security. But despite of that rebel would still follow civilians in the camps over power the UPDF soldiers and kill civilians for example the first attack was made at Acolpii, Apala, Okwang, Oromo, Otwal, and the last massacre so far that was the worst that left over 300 people dead on January 21st, 2004 at Barlongo. Due to insurgency that has been in northern Uganda especially Lango sub region for over 28 years has led to high infection rate of the deadly epidemic disease resulting into loss of very many lives which has created more orphans and widows in the area. It also made education standards to drop down so much, the region is now performing worse in the country because for many years schools were closed, there was not enough food or good water, no good medical care because most hospitals and health centers were looted by rebels. Most people are sick but cannot meet the demand or cannot afford the medical bills. Free services given rendered through the health centers are not enough. Laboratory equipment are not there like in Lira regional referral hospital does not have the CD4, viral load, pap semia machine, patients have to travel to Gulu Hospital for further investigations, but due to long-lasting war in the area people are very poor that they can’t afford which is leading to high rate of death.Despite of all that, the current government has not set Lango free because if your name starts with “O” you are not employed however much your level of education is. As a result of many humans suffering is unmemorable and the rural communities are desperate since they lack all the basic essentials a human being needs to sustain a fair life. The little assistance given to people by NUSAF is given to very few people like the ratio of 1:50 people per village (NUSAF) project that was brought to people for re-settling never benefitted the community for this matter Focus on Northern Uganda has come up with a proposal of recovery program that would take 40 years to bring Lango sub region to a better life by reducing the level of poverty through sensitizing, educating, reduce the rate of infection by constant random testing, encouraging use of condomns in communities, health eductating youth in schools to bring AIDS awareness and danger of AIDS in their society in order to elevate their standard of living and prevention of killer diseases that is rampant in the area e.g. malaria, TB, measles, HIV/AIDS. We have more then 10,000 orphans in the region that are homeless so we need orphanage, primary school, secondary school, vocational training institute, a hospital, equipment to do the testing of HIV/AIDS, viral load in the region. That would meet the demand for the venerable groups that are still on the recovering programs that cannot meet the demand of the paying institution.
100 students of Aboke Girls School were abducted, five were killed, some of them came after some years, some came after ten year, some came after thirteen years, but four have not yet come up to date. In 1990, 70 of Apola secondary were abducted, 7 were killed all those ones were recruited as child soldiers some came back one came back last year with a rank of a captain he is called Obura, others are still under captivity. The same year students of Ngata National Teachers College, Aloi Secondary School girls were sexually harassed and boys were abducted and recruited as child soldiers. They were trained to do hostile things, murdering people, massacres of people. They were trained to slaughter people in the presence of their relatives and make the relatives to cook the dead people and eat them. For that matter people were now forced to leave villages and come to camps in order to let them acquire a fair security. But despite of that rebel would still follow civilians in the camps over power the UPDF soldiers and kill civilians for example the first attack was made at Acolpii, Apala, Okwang, Oromo, Otwal, and the last massacre so far that was the worst that left over 300 people dead on January 21st, 2004 at Barlongo. Due to insurgency that has been in northern Uganda especially Lango sub region for over 28 years has led to high infection rate of the deadly epidemic disease resulting into loss of very many lives which has created more orphans and widows in the area. It also made education standards to drop down so much, the region is now performing worse in the country because for many years schools were closed, there was not enough food or good water, no good medical care because most hospitals and health centers were looted by rebels. Most people are sick but cannot meet the demand or cannot afford the medical bills. Free services given rendered through the health centers are not enough. Laboratory equipment are not there like in Lira regional referral hospital does not have the CD4, viral load, pap semia machine, patients have to travel to Gulu Hospital for further investigations, but due to long-lasting war in the area people are very poor that they can’t afford which is leading to high rate of death.Despite of all that, the current government has not set Lango free because if your name starts with “O” you are not employed however much your level of education is. As a result of many humans suffering is unmemorable and the rural communities are desperate since they lack all the basic essentials a human being needs to sustain a fair life. The little assistance given to people by NUSAF is given to very few people like the ratio of 1:50 people per village (NUSAF) project that was brought to people for re-settling never benefitted the community for this matter Focus on Northern Uganda has come up with a proposal of recovery program that would take 40 years to bring Lango sub region to a better life by reducing the level of poverty through sensitizing, educating, reduce the rate of infection by constant random testing, encouraging use of condomns in communities, health eductating youth in schools to bring AIDS awareness and danger of AIDS in their society in order to elevate their standard of living and prevention of killer diseases that is rampant in the area e.g. malaria, TB, measles, HIV/AIDS. We have more then 10,000 orphans in the region that are homeless so we need orphanage, primary school, secondary school, vocational training institute, a hospital, equipment to do the testing of HIV/AIDS, viral load in the region. That would meet the demand for the venerable groups that are still on the recovering programs that cannot meet the demand of the paying institution.