Increased rebel activity in northern Uganda puts children at risk

By Hilary Atkins* With the upsurge in rebel activity in northern Uganda concern is growing that few children in the region are safe. The SOS Emergency Relief Project in Gulu, which includes a temporary children's village, is currently secure, although SOS Children's Villages is taking all reasonable precautions (July 2003). In the last few weeks of June there has been an upsurge in the activities of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has been at war with the Ugandan government for almost 18 years. Located in northern Uganda, the "rebels" are notorious for their use of children, who they kidnap and force to become soldiers and sex slaves. (It is estimated that the LRA has kidnapped over 5,000 children.) The children are most vulnerable at night, when the LRA seems to move freely, and on 23 June an unknown number of girls (possibly up to 80) were taken from a boarding school near the town of Soroti in the north east of the country. One year ago SOS Children's Villages established a presence in the northern Uganda town of Gulu, opening a temporary children's village to care for orphaned and abandoned children, including those that are released, or escape, from the LRA. According to William Damilura, the national director of SOS Children's Villages in Uganda, "the tension from the rebel war is growing intensely, and at times it comes quite close to Gulu town." He says that several incidents have been as close as 8 km to the town, but that they are usually short-lived and therefore remain unpredictable. Life in a displacement camp - Photo: H. Atkins The village is located in the Gulu suburb of Pece, which has been relatively peaceful, at least for the last couple of months. However William Damilura expressed concern when he heard that several children were abducted from a Catholic mission children's home at Adjumani, about 150 km northwest of Gulu. "This sounded terribly inhuman", said Damilura, who continued, "So far, we think that we are still safe, although this proves quite hard to predict over a long period." For the last six months children from the surrounding area have been trekking nightly into Gulu town, sleeping in bus stations, churches, hospitals and on pavements, before returning home the next morning. These areas are their only refuge from a rebel army that usually attacks at night. However, in Kitgum district, to the east of Gulu, the situation is apparently much worse, and large numbers of children have been abducted. SOS Children's Villages establishing medical and social centre SOS Children's Village President Helmut Kutin visited the Gulu projects at the end of May and committed to building a permanent village in the near future. Currently the village cares for over 100 children who reside in dormitory blocks with their caregivers. SOS Children's Villages is also constructing a social and medical centre, which will be open to the community. A large playground has been established as a focal point and is used by mothers and children from the community as well as SOS children. William Damilura and his staff are pursuing the initial stages of the Gulu social programme, through which SOS Children's Villages intends to support 50 families in the local community in terms of childcare, education, health etc. The idea is to establish a model in order to prevent child abandonment. The programme will also support war-affected children and youth living in Gulu municipality, and will be carried out in partnership with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). *Hilary Atkins is co-worker of SOS Children's Villages in Nairobi, Kenya.