Alexis Okeowo is a staff writer for the New Yorker whose debut book was published earlier this month. The book, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa has been getting rave reviews — rightfully so....
I sat in the dim light of a Christian church with walls of mud and a roof of corrugated metal, as Alaakiir Ajok told her story. This was last September, 19 months after fighting had erupted around her home in...
Over the past three months, an average of more than 2,000 South Sudanese a day have crossed into Uganda, seeking safety from bloodshed at home. Aid groups and government agencies are scrambling to shelter and feed everyone. The influx has...
Ugandans voted last week in national elections for president, parliament and local government positions. Unsurprisingly, on Saturday the Electoral Commission declared incumbent President Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential election with 60 percent of the vote. It marks the...
Victor Ochen grew up in displaced persons camps in Northern Uganda, fleeing from the Lord’s Resistance Army. He emerged from that difficult situation to become a civic leader and peacemaker and this year, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace...
For over twenty years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, has terrorized civilians in its attempt to overthrow the government of Uganda. The group’s activities have affected the entire region, as throughout its history, the LRA has...
The situation is still very much in flux. For now, though, there is a sense that the authorities are responding as they should and along international guidelines that the WHO has established to deal with emergencies like these.
When the Kony 2012 video went viral, I immediately thought of a friend of mine in Uganda, Victor Ochen.Victor grew up in IDP camps in Northern Uganda during the height of the LRA conflict. His own brother was abducted by the group, never to be seen again.