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War, child soldiering and its aftermath continue to destroy societies in West, East, Central, Southern and Great Lakes Region Africa. In African and global wars, children are increasingly the soldier of choice.

Twice in May last year, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked two Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Northern Uganda.  Most of those killed were women and children. Most of those who did the killing were also children.

The May 16th raid was on Pagak Camp just north of Gulu. Most of the victims, estimated as between 40 and 80 in number, were shot or hacked to death. A UN team that visited the camp said that 544 grass-roofed houses were also burned in the raid and over a third of the camp's 12,000 persons were streaming toward Gulu town for refuge. Just before leaving the camp, LRA soldiers looted food and abducted women to carry the food out of the camp. When they had gone a short distance from the camp, the soldiers took the food they had looted and clubbed the women and the babies strapped to their backs to death.

In the second raid on May 20th at Lukodi Camp, also near Gulu, the victims either died in their houses when they were set ablaze or bludgeoned to death. Several weeks before that, on April 29 th , over 200 people were killed in Odek village. Many thousands of civilians in Uganda's northern districts have been raped, maimed, and slaughtered by LRA raids over the years. In fact, this carnage on the civilian population of Northern Uganda has been going on for 18 years without relief. Because the attacks have been increasing, the number of IDPs has trebled since 2002, to 1.6 million people.          

So what is the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, and why are they attacking the civilian population of Northern Uganda? As important as it is to condemn and stop the atrocities, and to bring the leadership of the LRA to justice, it is equally critical to understand the vast majority of LRA soldiers are abducted children, both boys and girls, some as young as seven years old. LRA is commanded by one Joseph Kony, who claims to be guided by the Holy Spirit. There is also a history of division between Uganda and its northern communities. The decades old war in Sudan is also a factor in LRA's survival. The Kampala government, until recently, supported the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in their quest for self-determination. In response, the Khartoum government has supported the LRA, which is based in and attacks from Sudan. The LRA's stated goal is to overthrow the government of Uganda.

The recent peace accord between the Khartoum government and SPLA may end LRA's support from Sudan, although it may find support elsewhere. After eighteen years, LRA, which is more like a warlord group than a rebel army, has many ways of financing its army.

To be sure, LRA would appear to be an unusual army—its “soldiers” are almost all children and someone who claims to be seized by the Holy Spirit leads its commanders. Looking more closely, LRA is not the only children's army. 80% of combatants in the 40-year war in Colombia, South America - government and rebel forces alike - are children, and throughout Africa as well as globally, children comprise an increasingly larger proportion of combatant forces. 

Likewise, while there may be political motivations not to do so, there are humanitarian reasons why the LRA is not hunted down with the aim of killing all its soldiers. These are children, most of whom were abducted at very young ages, forced to kill and maim. In addition, girls serve as sex slaves to commanders and soldiers while boys become cooks, porters, sentries and bodyguards.

A recent study from Belgium entitled “Post-traumatic Stress in Former Ugandan Child Soldiers,” as reported in the 13 March 2004 edition of Lancet Medical Journal reveals that 77% of former child soldiers in LRA saw someone killed and 39% had been forced to kill at least one person in their average more-than-two-year stay in rebel captivity. 63% had to loot properties and burn houses of civilians. 52% were seriously beaten. 48% got injured. 39% had to abduct other children. 65% were forced into military training. 55% had to carry heavy loads. 61% had to stay in difficult circumstances in Sudan. 64% had to fight. 35% were sexually abused. 18% gave birth to one or more children while in captivity. 27% had to drink urine. The mean age of abduction for these children-turned soldiers was 12.9 years.

The majority of children had high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms and many were now orphans. Of the 301 former child soldiers studied, 66% of their fathers were deceased, 46% of whom had been killed. 37% of their mothers were also deceased, 32% of whom had been killed. Disease also killed many parents. The manner in which parents had been killed—some abducted children witnessed the killing of their own parents—also impacted on post-traumatic stress. The fact so many of these children were also orphans with no family or community to which to return added to the post-traumatic stress.

Since the war began, tens of thousands of people have been killed and maimed, hundreds of thousands internally displaced and food production activities have been totally suspended. Approximately 20,000-30,000 children have been abducted to date, with the largest number of abductions during the past several years. It is estimated that several hundred thousand people, mostly Acholi, have died from the effects of this war, especially from war related disease in IDP camps.  90% of LRA's soldiers are children.

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