Government claims no more child soldiers in UPDF

The Ugandan government has said there are no more soldiers under the age of 18 in the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), the government-owned ‘New Vision’ reported on Monday. Ugandan Commissioner for Labour David Ogaram said that all former child soldiers from the Ugandan army had been sent back to school and have since graduated from universities and higher education institutions, it said. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers said in June in its ‘Global Report on Child Soldiers’ that, despite legislation to the contrary, there have been “continued reports of government recruitment of child soldiers.” The UPDF had also provided direct assistance to opposition groups in northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by training and equipping thousands of young recruits, including many children, the report stated.