With an agreement on the DDR of LRA rebels signed and hopes for a final peace agreement on the horizon, we thought it important to point out two recent SWAY reports on war-affected youth in northern Uganda. A November 2007 brief highlights the need for assistance programs that target specific needs (such as literacy and livelihoods) rather than certain categories of youth (such as formerly abducted LRA rebels). A February 2008 brief focuses on women and girls, demonstrating the difficulties they face accessing secondary education and being exposed to domestic violence and family and community conflicts. It argues for an emphasis on gender mainstreaming, livelihood development and targeted health and conflict resolution interventions in policies and programs.

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On Wednesday the UN Security Council held a day-long debate and issued a presidential statement on the issue children and armed conflict. The debate focused on the findings of the 2007 UN Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict, which lists both the LRA and Ugandan military as responsible for “committing rape and other grave sexual violence against children.”

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A quick link: The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is featuring a new study on children born of the Lord's Resistance Army. The abstract reads, "The children's dual status both as children of LRA fathers (who have wreaked such damage on local communities) and as illegitimate children, resulted in their stigmatization and rejection by their mothers' communities." Read the full paper here.

A doctor from the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital in northern Uganda has said that youth in northern Uganda suffer from mental illness, many from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dr. Thomas Oyak said, "These young people were born during the insurgency, they have grown up seeing nothing but guns and people being killed.” Read more at The Monitor.

The United Nations has called on the LRA to unconditionally release all the children in their ranks. According to the UN News Service, the issue came up on Friday during the adoption of recommendations regarding children in armed conflict in Uganda and Somalia by the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy (right) said despite calls against the practice, the LRA has stubbornly continued to use child soldiers. "The LRA has ignored the repeated calls from the international community and we hope that they will now immediately undertake actions for the sake of these children," she said. Read more at The Monitor.

The LRA has reportedly agreed to open discussions at the Juba peace talks over the fate of thousands of children kidnapped over the last 20 years. Captain Bahoku Barigye, spokesman for the government's negotiating team, said that the government would argue for the children's release. The LRA team affirmed this report. "The issue of abducted children will be thoroughly discussed soon. We will get a solution," LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayo said. Read more at Garowe Online.

The LRA's second-in-command Vincent Otti has said the rebel group will not release children and women under their captivity. Otti said all those under captivity will come out with them after the signing of the final peace agreement between the LRA and the government. "Releasing children for what? Have they been in prison? The children we have here (bush) are ours. They were born in the bush," he said. However, the government has appealed to the rebels to release all people under their captivity against their will. Read more at The Monitor.