Displaced children sleeping on streets in Kitgum town

At least 5,000 displaced children in the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum, who spend nights sleeping outside on shop steps and sidewalks, fear they could be abducted by rebels and are in desperate need of shelter and sleeping materials.

Some 12,000 children flock to the town every evening, but many sleep in school buildings, hospitals, district buildings and other sheltered spaces. Popularly known as "night commuters", the children are vulnerable to attack by the Lord’s Resistance army (LRA). They consider the towns safer.

Apart from the children, another 6,300 adults are also "night commuters". Most of them come into the town from villages located one or two km outside Kitgum town.

"The 5,000 are those who have nowhere to sleep and end up in the open verandas every night," Mohammed Siryon, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kitgum, told IRIN on Friday. "The situation is desperate, but relief agencies are trying to set up management structures, through which, support could be given to these children."

OCHA, in a September situation report on Kitgum, said it had received "alarming revelations of abuses among the veranda dwellers, ranging from rapes of adolescent females, harassment of children by soldiers, molestation and appalling sanitary conditions". It said preliminary information indicated the children were willing to move into shelters, if any could be found.

A survey done by the charity International Rescue Committee (IRC) in June, found that 79 percent of the night commuters in Kitgum were experiencing a second form of displacement. The majority of them were aged 9 to 16 years and about a half were female. Some 54 percent travelled along the commuter route without a parent.

Some 42 percent did not have access to lighting near their sleeping place, 40 percent reported being fearful of attacks and 22 percent reported having nightmares while sleeping. More than a third of them requested bedding materials and mosquito nets.

According to the IRC, the population of night commuters grew rapidly after July 2003 when the LRA massacred women and children in three IDP camps 20 km outside Kitgum town.

"Since the massacres, the number of night commuters remained at an average of 10,000 fluctuating with the levels of LRA activity and has now reached 20,000," IRC said.

The survey sought to determine basic awareness of HIV/AIDS among the children. More than half of them, of whom the majority were sexually active adolescents, said they did not know about HIV/AIDs prevention. It suggested segregating sleeping spaces to reduce the amount of sexual activity and the chances of sexual violence.

Thousands of night commuter children are found in towns across northern Uganda where an 18-year war between the LRA and the government has displaced about 1.6 million people. The rebels have abducted more than 20,000 children and either forcibly recruited them into their ranks or handed the girls to LRA commanders as "wives".

The Ugandan army has rescued thousands of the abducted children, but it is believed the rebels still hold several thousands of children captive. Former captives also say many of the abducted have been killed. It is estimated that half of LRA combatants are abducted children.

"The abducted are forced to endure tremendous hardship, psychological trauma and sexual abuse," the IRC survey said. "Children are often forced to kill their own family members and destroy their homes and villages [and] younger children are proffered because they are more easily intimidated and indoctrinated."