Years of insecurity have sown untold suffering in northern Uganda's Acholi Region. Death, torture, humiliations, rape and displacement are among the traumas its people are forced to endure. During a visit to Gulu, a district in Acholi Region, in late July 2003, IRIN interviewed a number of residents and officials. Some were still trying to cope with the effects of a prolonged nightmare in which they were both victims and abusers. Others felt helpless, able to do little more than act as powerless witnesses to the gradual destruction of their society. Still others hoped for international help to end the war and give them a chance to rebuild their shattered lives.