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Queen Elizabeth II has commended the Ugandan government for its efforts in trying to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Northern Uganda.
The Queen, dressed in a smart lime green suit with matching hat, said this while addressing the Ugandan Parliament today, accompanied by her husband Prince Philip and United Kingdom government officials including Foreign Affairs Minister David Miliband.
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In a speech lasting nearly five minutes, she said "many in the United Kingdom were moved by the plight of the suffering of the people in Northern Uganda", adding that the UK would continue supporting government's efforts to find a peaceful end to the conflict.
Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been waging a war in Northern Uganda for more than 18 years now, which has left several thousand people dead, and others displaced from their homes.
Over the last year however, government's attempts to negotiate with the rebels, has restored some calm and stability to the region with many of those affected by the war returning to their homes to rebuild their lives.
The Queen also praised the Uganda government's efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS scourge, and restoring hope to thousands of infected and affected people. Earlier in the day, the Queen visited Mildmay hospital, one of the several projects funded by the British government, offering paediatric care and support to children living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
The Queen, whose arrival to the Ugandan parliament was greeted with much fanfare, dancing and music, said she was delighted to be returning to Uganda which she last visited with her husband in 1954, eight years before the country attained its independence from Britain.
Making reference to Winston Churchill's description of Uganda as the Pearl of Africa, she said Uganda was indeed truly gifted by nature – a remark that won her much applause and foot stamping from a full House of Ugandan MPs and other government officials who had crowded in the small Parliamentary chamber and adjoining corridors to listen to her speech.
She said the UK would continue to be a "committed friend of Uganda" and to engage with the government on mutual areas of interest.
Uganda president Yoweri Museveni, flanked by his wife Janet Museveni, warmly welcomed the Queen to Uganda and noted that Uganda had achieved economic, social and political transformation since the country's independence. He is due to hold a Banquet for the Queen later in the evening. The Queen is due to officially open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Friday November 21 at the Serena hotel in Kampala.
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