Soldiers trained in child protection

Meanwhile, an initiative to incorporate child rights issues into the training curricula of Ugandan soldiers and officers has begun, with the support of several NGOs. A training session recently organised in Kampala aimed to assist the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) to know “how to handle the encounter with and reintegration of abducted children forced to become soldiers and wives by the LRA,” said an SCF-Sweden statement received by IRIN on Thursday. The training course “drew a lot of interest from the soldiers with some realising they had been abusers unintentionally. It has resulted in the army opting to work more closely with the local communities,” an SCF official told IRIN. Other organisations supporting the effort include SCF-Denmark and the local Gulu Support Children Organisation (GUSCO). 77 suspected terrorists arrested Uganda security forces arrested 77 people in connection with “acts of terrorism” committed in eastern and western Uganda, news agencies said. Uganda’s Director of Military Intelligence Henry Tumukunde on Wednesday told reporters in Kampala that the acts were being coordinated by Muslim fundamentalist groups operating with the help of the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, the Associated Press (AP) said. Some 28 terrorist attacks had killed 55 people and injured 183 in Kampala since 1997, news agencies said.