Unseen conflict, unnoticed victims: The critical assessment of government and non-state actors response to the effect of ADF cross-border violence on children and youths in Kasese district of Rwenzori region of Uganda.

In the dominant discourse, the locus of war and conflict in Uganda is in the north that involves the Joseph Kony Lord Resistance Army. Despite the fact that the impact of ADF rebellion in the West is equally devastating compare to that of LRA in the North. ADF conflict relatively remains “an unseen conflict” with “unnoticed victims” that has been abandoned. This study explained why?, most importantly the reason why government interven-tion programs to alleviate the suffering of children affected by the conflict have little impact in comparison to that of the non-state actors on the children and youths affected by the conflict in Rwenzori region. We critically analyse various agencies’ and actors’ responses to young people's vulnerability and needs following the ADF rebellion in Western Uganda, Kasese in particular. The various actors considered include international and local NGOs, and Ugandan government bodies. Using resilience and vulnerability and targeting as 'frames' through which the NGOs and government and other actors view young people in conflict, the study end up to show why intervention in Kasese District has been relatively lacking, and has attracted little or insignificant attention. Before this assessment of the intervention policies, however, the procedure used by government and NGOs as a response to the plight of children and youths in conflict was put to test by drawing on the toolkits for facilitating Transitions for Children and Youth in conflict zones by the Post-Conflict Funds Project (PCF). In conclusion, I argued that for any successful intervention, there is a need for a community based approach that prioritized the beneficiary’s voices and participation in the designing of the intervention program.