• Reintegration of child soldiers

Reintegration of child soldiers

Since the late 1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group in Uganda, has abducted tens of thousands of children and adults to serve as porters and soldiers. Girls were forced to serve as sexual and domestic servants and fighters were forced to inflict horrific injuries on defenceless civilians. Children and youth have been forced to mutilate and kill civilians. LRA abductees have had violence inflicted upon them. The Ugandan government and the international community have failed to protect civilians from abductions and other assaults in northern Uganda.

Abduction results in mild to moderate psychosocial consequences. Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression, however, were found to be significantly higher among those who experienced abduction compared to those who only witnessed violence and those who had little exposure to the conflict.

This paper, based on a research project of the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations, documents abduction and aims to help improve the capacity of eight reception centres in the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Apac, and Lira in Northern Uganda to collect and analyse information about former Lords Resistance Army (LRA) abductees.

Findings and recommendations include:

• former LRA abductees can be distinguished by subgroup based on gender, length of abduction, experience, and exposure to violence; programs aimed at providing psychosocial assistance to former abductees and helping them reintegrate into their communities should be mindful of these characteristics 
• the majority of former abductees (61 percent) were 10 to 18 years old when they arrived at the reception centres 
• girls and women represent 24 percent of the former LRA abductees registered at the eight reception centres included in the survey and females stayed longer with the LRA than males; young women between the ages of 19 and 30 tended to stay longer with the LRA, averaging four and a half years
• estimates of the number of LRA abductions are higher than previously suggested, and the whereabouts of most abducted people remains unknown
• more information is needed to better understand the scope and intensity of abduction in northern Uganda
• data collection and information management is critical to document population vulnerability and human rights violations and to inform policies
• LRA abductions of children and adults increased during and after large military campaigns against the LRA rebels
• LRA abductions are geographically more dispersed than previously reported; abductions are also concentrated in specific locations
• the numbers of former abductees arriving at reception centres have declined since 2004.
  

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