Chronology of key events in 2006

1 January: Acholi paramount community chief, Rwot David Onen Acana II, calls on the LRA rebels and the government to make 2006 a year of peace for the Acholi by engaging in dialogue. 1 January: Acholi paramount community chief, Rwot David Onen Acana II, calls on the LRA rebels and the government to make 2006 a year of peace for the Acholi by engaging in dialogue. 2 January: The Ugandan army says it has killed eight LRA rebels in three separate battles in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts and captured an anti-aircraft machine gun. The rebels were killed at Got-Afoyo near Pakwach Bridge on the Karuma-Pakwach road in Murchison Falls National Game Park and in Beyogoya, Kitgum district. 4 January: Archbishop of Gulu Archdiocese, John Baptist Odama, appeals to LRA chief Joseph Kony and his rebels to come out of the bush and talk peace with the government. 8 January: Fifteen LRA rebels kill three people at a disco hall in Zaipi sub-county in Adjumani district and critically injure 12 others, the army reports, adding that government soldiers had killed five rebels in unrelated battles - three along the Aswa River in Pader district, one in Kitgum and another in Gulu. 4 February: LRA rebels abduct eight children and two women near Cwero camp for displaced people and Pageya trading centre, both in Gulu district. 6 February: The deputy executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rimah Salah, calls for new ideas and a fresh resolve to end the suffering of children in northern Uganda during a three-day visit to the conflict-ridden region. She is accompanied by the French foreign minister, Philippe Bouste Blazy, who asks European partners to join hands to improve the plight of child soldiers in northern Uganda. 9 February: LRA rebels kill three civilians in an ambush near Acet camp for displaced people in Gulu district. 11 February: LRA rebels abduct 10 people from Layibi Aywee village outside Gulu town. 17 February: Kitgum officials order a crackdown on Karamojong warriors after cattle raids are reported in Omiya Ayima. Similar raids are reported in Olilim, Omoro and Apala in Lira district. Heavily armed warriors are also reported in Katakwi and Amuria districts. 20 February: Fresh displacement of civilians is reported in Alito trading centre, Kitgum district, following an LRA attack a week earlier in which six people were killed. 23 February: Ugandans go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections. Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for 20 years, wins another five-year term. 28 February: Some 27 meningitis cases are reported in Gulu district, with 10 confirmed since 13 January. Nine of the confirmed cases are in Unyama camp for the displaced. 15-17 March: Dennis McNamara, head of the UN Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division, leads a team of donors to evaluate the situation in northern Uganda. 16 March: The Ugandan army announces that LRA leader Joseph Kony has joined his deputy, Vincent Otti, in the Garamba National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after leaving his hideout in southern Sudan. 20 March: Government officials say a new, comprehensive joint strategy to redevelop northern Uganda is being discussed. The Joint Country Coordination and Monitoring Committee (JCCMC) on northern Uganda would be coordinated by the prime minister and involve all stakeholders. 23 March: Officials from the International Criminal Court hold a series of consultations with religious and traditional leaders and NGOs in northern and eastern Uganda. 24 March: The UN Security Council condemns the LRA in a resolution adopted by the 15-member body. It "strongly condemned activities of militias and armed groups such as the LRA, which continue to attack civilians and commit human rights abuses in Sudan". 25 March: NGOs issue a report saying some 146 people die each week in northern Uganda. The report, "Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda", was prepared by 50 aid agencies working in the region. 1 April: UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland declares the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda "the world's worst form of terrorism" during a visit to Patongo camp for the displaced in Pader district. 2 April: LRA fighters kill four hunters from Atiak camp, in the valley of the Achwa River in Atiak sub-county, Gulu district. 3 April: LRA rebels abduct six people from Pachomo village, in Layamo sub-county, Kitgum district. Four women who had been abducted by the LRA escape during a clash with the Ugandan army. 4 April: The Ugandan government refutes a report by NGOs that there are more deaths in camps for the displaced in northern Uganda than in Iraq. In a strongly worded statement, the government calls the report "sensational" and "inaccurate". 4 April: The Ugandan army starts seizing firearms held illegally by ethnic Karamajong pastoralists in the northeastern region of the country, in a bid to stem escalating incidents of interethnic violence. 13 April: President Yoweri Museveni criticises NGOs operating in northern Uganda for "disseminating unresearched, negative reports about the situation in the area that can interfere with the recovery programme put in place by government" during a meeting with NGO representatives at his Rwakitura home. 14 April: Alice Auma Lakwena, leader of the Holy Spirit Movement, which was the precursor to the LRA, announces new conditions for her return from exile in Kenya. Lakwena, a spirit-medium of the Acholi ethnic group, led a rebellion against the Ugandan government from August 1986 to November 1987. 14 April: The Ugandan army kills two rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) along Buluji River in Lagoro sub-county, Kitgum district. The army says the rebels had tried to attack Kitgum Matidi camp for internally displaced persons. 14 April: The army says it has stopped providing military escorts to convoys delivering non-food aid to war-ravaged northern Uganda. Relief workers, however, say the decision is premature because the security situation in the region is still fragile. The decision does not affect agencies that deliver food aid, such as the United Nations World Food Programme. ALSO SEE: UGANDA: Year in Review 2005 - Rebel activity and political upheaval UGANDA: Year in Brief 2005 - A chronology of key events