|TOP|The retired Anglican Bishop of Kitgum Diocese in Uganda has called the 20-year war in the northern part of the country a genocide.

Macleord Ochala told the 75th General Convention of the US Episcopal Church in Columbus Ohio: I have come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to tell you about the genocide that has been going on in northern Uganda for the last 20 years.

"Terrible crimes against humanity have been committed with impunity in northern and northeastern Uganda by both the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Uganda People's Defence Force.”

The retired Bishop of Kitgum also told delegates at the Convention that the Ugandan government had forced thousands into camps for internally displaced people where overcrowding had led to the additional loss of life.

|AD|"The harassment and forcing of people into the camps started in 1996 in Gulu. As a result, many people have lost their lives due to the conditions of congestion in the camps," he said.

He added, "While the terror by the LRA and UPDF has killed people, the catastrophic and inhuman conditions in the IDP camps have also taken a big toll."

The Anglican Bishop of the Northern Uganda Diocese, Nelson Onono-Onweng, made a heart-felt plea to the international community to take immediate action in the hope of finally bringing to an end the violent conflict that has plagued the region for the last twenty years.

A long-standing peace advocate who has met with the LRA numerous times in an attempt to bring peace, Bishop Onono-Onweng said: “I do not want to lament, but I want the international community to realise that we are part of global humanity with rights to life, peace education, culture and wealth.”

The bishop’s appeal coincided with the release of a report by the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU) which warned that the death rate in the region is three times higher than that in Iraq.

The report, “Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in Northern Uganda”, was produced by CSOPNU in collaboration with Oxfam International, Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee.