Uganda's Forgotten Children

Until an accord is signed between the LRA and Kampala, the northern region of Uganda will remain unsafe. Prospects for the people in this region appear quite dismal.

According to the UK-based charity, Save The Children , "The future of Uganda's children is under severe threat." The disintegration of peace talks in the southern Sudanese town of Juba can be blamed for these lamentations. The landmark discussions between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda were once regarded with great optimism but deadlines for disarmament continue to be ignored by the LRA and insecurity in the region remains high.

Joseph Kony 's LRA maintains that they want to relocate the venue to Kenya or South Africa after comments from Sudan's president suggested that they were no longer welcome on Sudanese soil. The Ugandan government, however, insists that Juba will be the only venue for dialogue. This debate leaves more than a million people wondering what will happen with respect to their lives.

Stolen youth

During the past two decades, Kony and his insurgents gained a reputation for being one of the most vicious rebel outfits imaginable, kidnapping somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 children and forcing them to become child soldiers, porters and sex slaves. Before Kony performed a volte-face and declared his wishes for peace, their acts of violence and mutilation were unparalelled. In fact, things we so consistently grave - the fear of Kony and his marauders so severe - that children in northern Uganda, known as the "night commuters," had to leave their villages before sunset to avoid the almost certain chance of being abducted by the LRA.

Save The Children states that some 10,000 children are still missing in northern Uganda and that another 1,500 could still be captive within the ranks of the Lord's Resistance Army. A truce reached in August between the LRA and the Ugandan government appeared as though it might herald an end to one of the world's most forgotten crises but stalls have put the fate of these people, once again, in limbo.

In July 2006, Reuters conducted a poll and, while experts easily nominated Sudan as the world's most dangerous place for children, Uganda garnered the dubious distinction of being runner-up. The two-decade conflict has uprooted 1.7 million people, 935,000 of whom Reuters claims are children, spread out over more that 200 squalid Internally Displaced Persons' camps.