Where are the Missing Ugandan Children?
NEW YORK / GENEVA, 4 April 2002 – The United Nations Children’s Fund expressed grave concern today over the fate of thousands of children that the Ugandan government said were abandoned in southern Sudan over the weekend by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA.) UNICEF has asked the Ugandan government for clarification regarding its assertion on Saturday that the LRA abandoned the children during a Ugandan government offensive in southern Sudan. According to remarks made by Ugandan defense officials, the children are in the hands of the Sudanese government, and will eventually be turned over to humanitarian agencies. However, so far the UNICEF offices in Uganda and Sudan have received no other indication that children were in fact released by the LRA. “The Ugandan government has made clear that the purpose of its military campaign in southern Sudan is to destroy the LRA while also securing the release of thousands of children abducted by the LRA. But we have yet to see any evidence th
