Gulu Walk - October 22nd

The Night Commuters

Children are lucrative resources for the LRA rebels. The atrocities committed against these children are impossible to imagine: in captivity children as young as seven years old are tortured, beaten and raped. They are then forced to become rebel soldiers, sexual slaves, porters and labourers. Some are forced to kill, maim, beat or abduct innocent victims, including family members and neighbours, or to look on as these abuses are committed. Girls are used as domestic servants or forced into sexual slavery as LRA commanders� �wives�. They are subject to rape, unwanted pregnancy and the risk of infection, including HIV/AIDS.

Child abduction is clearly a major security concern for northern Uganda. Desperately afraid of abduction, vulnerable children as young as four years old will walk from their homes or displacement camp to a large urban centre every night.

These �night commuters� travel as far as 20km on a daily basis without any adult supervision subjecting them to a wide range of violence. They gather in schools, hospitals, district offices and NGO compounds - wherever they believe they can spend the night in safety. They settle to sleep in the open, where they are often abused and exploited.

This temporary night displacement has destroyed family and cultural roles, and has deprived an entire generation of children from a primary education. At the peak of the conflict, the UN estimated the number of night commuters in Gulu, Pader and Kitgum districts to be 40,000.