RRIA May 2: Holocaust in nothern Uganda – A U.S human rights activist and philanthropist, Oprah host of the Oprah Winfrey TV Show, has described the situation in northern Uganda as a holocaust.

Over 300 million television viewers around the world witnessed the tragedy of the northern Uganda war victims, as it featured last week on the world’s biggest talk-show, the Oprah Winfrey TV show. Its host, Oprah said since she saw the horrible pictures, she had been suffering sleepless nights.

A tear-jerking documentary by an Oprah Show correspondent, Lisa Ling, who video-taped suffering former LRA captives and child soldiers, was aired on the show. Ling was in Uganda for six days before appearing on the show. The show featured a live-in-studio profile of Evaline, a 14-year-old girl, who was abducted at 12 years old and forced to endure beatings and to fight for the LRA.

Evaline, whose face was disfigured by shrapnel from a bomb blast during battle, held a handkerchief over her mouth, which has undergone multiple operations. Evaline, who was sponsored to the United States by an American family in order to have her face reconstructed, has undergone four operations and is left with two more. The host, Oprah, a human rights activist and philanthropist, described the situation in northern Uganda as a holocaust, saying since she saw the horrible pictures, she had been suffering sleepless nights. Oprah called upon viewers to “rise up against the madness” and help curb the atrocities happening in Africa.

“If we don’t listen and do something now, we are all going to have blood on our hands….if this was happening to your child, wouldn’t you want the world to help?” Oprah asked. The show also featured a documentary by three American college students, about the life of night commuters, the Invisible Children. Every night, the children flee their insecure rural homes in Gulu district to sleep on shop verandahs in the town. The Invisible Children introduced viewers to two brothers, Jacob and Thomas, who were forced to flee after witnessing the murder of their brother by an LRA rebel. The American students, Bobby, Jason and Larin, while in Uganda, encountered thousands of children living like Jacob and Thomas.