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Group of eight LRA abductees brought back home

Eight children abducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have recently been brought back to their homes in northern Uganda, with the help of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Office for Migration (IOM). "The children were a little apprehensive at first, but were soon in high spirits after departure from Juba [capital of Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan]," said John Walburn, IOM's Chief of Mission in Uganda, in a statement on Friday. "All were looking forward to being reunited with their families." The children, who had all escaped LRA captivity in southern Sudan, were brought back on 30 April to their families in Kitgum and Gulu districts, in the Acholiland area of northern Uganda, where they would receive psychosocial counselling provided by the NGO World Vision, IOM said. Following the signing in September 2000 of the Sudan-Uganda Joint Communique on Immediate Action on Abducted Children, the Khartoum government set up a centre in Juba, a government-held garrison town, to receive and process abductees. The Abducted Children Registration and Information System, a database developed and maintained jointly by UNICEF and the Ugandan government, estimates that one-third of the 30,000 cases of abduction recorded involve children under the age of 18. More than 5,550 abductees are still unaccounted for, according to IOM. Since September 2000, a total of 278 persons abducted by the LRA in northern Uganda have been repatriated by the IOM and its partners, Friday's press release stated. A recent agreement signed by the Ugandan and Sudanese government has given the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) authorisation to pursue the LRA inside Sudanese territory. Previously supported by Sudan, in retaliation for Ugandan support for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army battling Khartoum, the LRA has fought the Uganda government since the late 1980s, from bases in southern Sudan. Uganda and Sudan have said they will do all they can to assure the safety and secure the release of thousands of child abductees among the LRA forces, but UNICEF has expressed concern for the fate of the abductees (few of whom had been traced since the start of the UPDF's "Operation Iron Fist"), including those who may be caught up in fighting. There was no sign thus far of any significant number of LRA abductees showing up in Juba or making their way to northern Uganda, nor had the UPDF announced their capture, so there was still concern for their fate, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. A number of UPDF-LRA clashes have been reported in recent days, concentrated in the Imatong Hills area between the garrison towns of Magwe and Torit in Eastern Equatoria, about 60 km from the Ugandan border.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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