An agreement to prosecute alleged war criminals in Uganda rather than in the International Criminal Court (ICC) has fuelled hopes for an imminent end to the long-running civil war, even if one leading rights group has condemned the deal.
Delegates from the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) agreed on 19 February that a special division of the country's high court be set up to try war crimes committed during the 21-year-old conflict.
The deal was reached in the Southern Sudanese capital, Juba, where the two sides have been negotiating a peace deal for the past 18 months. The Ugandan government has insisted a comprehensive treaty must be reached by the end of February 2008, failing which it could resume hostilities.