Child Soldiers

What did I do with the LRA during my time in captivity? Killed people, beat up people, and looted property. This was under order from the commanders.

James K., abducted in May 2002 at age sixteen*

Waging an unpopular war with almost no local support has forced the LRA to replenish its ranks with child soldiers abducted from insecure displacement camps and villages in northern Uganda. Between 30,000 and 66,000 children from the north have been abducted by LRA, while an additional unknown number of children from southern Sudan (where the LRA has been active for more than a decade) have also been kidnapped. Since 2006 peace talks between the Ugandan government and LRA have improved security and caused a dramatic reduction in abduction. But until then LRA raids on displacement camps and villages targeted children, who were often forced into killing family members or other children before beginning difficult marches to rebel camps. The LRA’s tactic of abducting children is rational and calculated, preying on the susceptibility of young children to brainwashing and training that turns them into highly effective guerrillas fighting their own communities.

Many child soldiers have escaped or been rescued by the Ugandan military, but over 8,000 remain missing. Ritual killings, strict punishment for disobedience and indoctrination with LRA mysticism are used as deterrents to attempted escape, and abducted children are convinced that their home communities will not accept them back because of their crimes. As many as one in five male abductees and one in twenty female abductees have died from starvation, disease, violence and overwork after being kidnapped. Abducted girls are often given to an LRA commander as a "wife" and are raped and beaten at the commander's will. 

In addition to failing to protect children from abduction, the Ugandan armed forces and civilian militias also recruit children as young as 12 years old for military service. Recently escaped or rescued children are commonly interrogated by the Ugandan military and sometimes forced into service against their will. Equally disturbing, for two decades the Ugandan government insisted on pursuing a 'military solution' to the conflict, a policy which unavoidably targeted the children who comprise up to 90% of the LRA's ranks. In fact, at least one of the top LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes was abducted by the LRA as a child. Child soldiers are both victims and unwilling perpetrators, a complexity that ultimately testifies to the need for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Click here to read more about opportunities and challenges to building a brighter future for former child soldiers and all children in northern Uganda. 

*Learn more about James K.'s experience and the experiences of other former child soldiers by reading "Abducted and Abused: Renewed Conflict in Northern Uganda," Human Rights Watch 15(12) (July 2003).