Editing Holy Spirit Movement (section)

==Growth==

Following the collapse of [[Tito Okello]]'s [[Uganda National Liberation Army]] (UNLA), several soldiers left to create a separatist guerilla movement headed by [[Odong Latek]], the [[Uganda People's Democratic Army]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Allen|first=Tim|date=July 1991|title=Understanding Alice: Uganda's Holy Spirit Movement in context|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/understanding-alice-ugandas-holy-spirit-movement-in-context/DE89E3724443D29715DE5303EC10CE5B|journal=Africa|language=en|volume=61|issue=3|pages=370–399|doi=10.2307/1160031|jstor=1160031|s2cid=145668917 |issn=1750-0184|url-access=subscription}}</ref> This army fought for [[Acholi people|Acholi]] supremacy over regions historically belonging to the ethnic group.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Christopher R.|date=2011-07-01|title=The Fates of Rebels: Insurgencies in Uganda|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2011/00000043/00000004/art00005;jsessionid=gry93b9pr0og.x-ic-live-03|journal=Comparative Politics|volume=43|issue=4|pages=439–458|doi=10.5129/001041511796301623|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The horror in Northern Uganda|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mbaba20h/classweb/worldpolitics/lra%20background.html|access-date=2020-12-03|website=mtholyoke.edu}}</ref>

In 1986, Holy Spirit Movement founder Alice Lakwena (at the age of 27) and her supporters were given weapons by former UNLA officers.<ref name=":0" /> She thus began commanding her own troops, which she called the [[Holy Spirit Battalion]], one of four rebel groups seeking to gain control over the [[Gulu]] and [[Kitgum District|Kitgum]] districts of Uganda.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Behrend|first=Heike|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhZrWzSW0TUC&q=holy+spirit+movement+uganda&pg=PA20|title=Spirit Possession, Modernity & Power in Africa|date=1999|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-16634-2|language=en}}</ref> The Holy Spirit Battalion and the UPDA held a steady alliance until the [[Battle of Corner Kilak]] yielded a more contentious relationship.<ref name=":0" /> After an independent UPDA attack on Gulu on 20 April 1987, UPDA soldiers grew fearful of the Holy Spirit Battalion, leading to many defecting and joining Lakwena.<ref name=":0" />

Independently in April 1987, another 'spiritual medium', [[Joseph Kony]], held a Holy Spirit Army of his own, consisting of over 5,000 men, including defectors from the UPDA's [[Black Battalion uganda|Black Battalion]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Apuuli|first=K P|date=2007-10-18|title=Amnesty and international law: the case of the Lord\'s resistance army insurgents in Northern Uganda|journal=African Journal on Conflict Resolution|volume=5|issue=2|doi=10.4314/ajcr.v5i2.39391|issn=1562-6997|doi-access=free}}</ref> While Kony and his Holy Spirit Army was not affiliated with Lakwena and her Holy Spirit Battalion, the former was joined by Lakwena's father, [[Severino Lukwoya]].<ref name=":0" />

Lakwena launched an offensive in Southern Uganda in August 1987, as her numbers grew stronger and stronger.<ref name=":0" /> Lakwena was known to recruit disillusioned professional soldiers from the UDPA, and coerce young men from local villages to join her by killing their family members.<ref name=":0" /> After fighting a fairly successful campaign in Uganda, Lakwena and 118 followers crossed the [[Kenya]]n border, and were arrested as illegal immigrants, on 26 December 1987.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirit movement|url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/magazine/alice-lakwena-and-the-holy-spirit-movement-1308008|access-date=2020-12-03|website=The East African|date=6 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

After Lakwena's arrest and detention in Kenya, several former rebels again took up arms and formed what was known as 'Lakwena Part Two'.<ref name=":0" /> 'Lakwena Part Two' was less of a unified rebel movement, and more broadly encompassed different rebel groups that operated under a [[Spirit medium|spiritual medium]].<ref name=":0" /> These mediums never engaged in physical combat, but were instead more influential in strategizing and creating the belief system of their armies.<ref name=":0" />