Abduction by rebels deadly reality for Ugandan children, priest says

Published: 2004-02-04

GULU, Uganda (CNS) -- Darkness was falling as the children scurried along the rutted road toward the town center. They came in floods, like a scene from "Peter Pan," the young leading the old, clutching blankets in hand. Martha Fambi, 15, paused for breath under a line of giant mahogany trees. "We are afraid to sleep at home," she said, tightening the hold of her 2-year-old sister on her back. "The rebels come at night looking for children. They want to abduct us." In northern Uganda, the flight of children is no fantasy but a deadly reality. The children are fleeing the Lord's Resistance Army, the rebel army behind one of Africa's strangest and most tragic wars. At night, rebel soldiers swoop down on rural villages, murdering adults and abducting children to turn them into soldiers. As a result, thousands of youngsters flood into Gulu, an army garrison town, in search of shelter and sanctuary every night.

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