Page "Uganda People's Defence Force" Paragraph 13

The National Resistance Army was renamed the Uganda People's Defence Force following the enactment of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda.

UPDF's primary focus was the conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army ( LRA ), a rebel group operating in the country's northern region.

Since March 2002 UPDF has been granted permission to carry out operating against LRA bases across the border in the Sudan, and these raids, collectively known as Operation Iron Fist, have resulted in the repatriation of many abducted children being held by the rebels as child soldiers or sex slaves.

However the LRA fled Uganda and were pushed deep into the jungles of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( principally Orientale Province ).