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Uganda

Plight of Ugandan child soldiers being fueled by abuse of arms

GOAL has demanded that the plight of thousands of child soldiers in Uganda be the focus at the small arms and light weapons conference in New York this week.

Up to 5,000 children still serve in the Ugandan armed forces - even though they are officially banned from enlisting - and the rebel Lord'sResistance army (LRA) has up to 25,000 children in its ranks, who make up 80% of the terrorist insurgency movement.

The abuse of arms is fueling the conflict in northern Uganda, aggravating poverty and violation of human rights, where GOAL supports 184,000 vulnerable people displaced in six camps.

In a statement, GOAL's John O'Shea said: "These child fighters have been traumatised by the horrors they have witnessed, committed and are subjected to."

Despite Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's promise to reinforce measures against the recruitment of children and their use in armed conflict, this clearly has not happened.

"This week's UN conference offers a vital opportunity for the international community to force the Museveni government to agree to a set of global principles on arms."

"It is a moral outrage that the world is doing so little for these child victims of the war," O'Shea adds.

Two decades of war have devastated the north and uprooted more than 1.9 million people causing, what the UN has dubbed "one of the world's worst and most neglected humanitarian crisis". Over 41%of children in the camps have seriously stunted growth and two generations have been deprived of education, according to the United Nations.

The Small Arms Review Conference, from June 26 to July 7, will draw some 2,000 representatives from governments and civil society to see how effective the arms ban had been.

Child soldiers are also found in Burundi, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad, Sudan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Colombia, with most linked to militia groups.