The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group, is allegedly enlisting young people from neighboring countries, according to a UN report released Wednesday.
"There are reports alleging that LRA has been recruiting children from southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in the report to the Security Council.
In one case, three boys from the Sudan and the CAR who escaped from the LRA reported that they had been forced to work for the group as porters. They also reported that girls were present in the ranks, and that they were regularly subjected to gender-based violence, including rape.
On April 23, authorities in Dungu in eastern DRC reported that 13 people, including four students, were abducted from a primary school following LRA attacks.
"These allegations are being reported while the peace talks between LRA and the government of Uganda are stalled, notably because of the refusal by the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign the final peace agreement," Ban said.
The secretary-general added that although "there have been no recent cases of recruitment and use of Ugandan children, or other grave violations against children attributable to LRA," the group, now apparently absent from Ugandan territory, is still withholding children and women whom they abducted.
"... children and women are still present in the LRA ranks, and there has been no movement on their release," Ban said.
Last July the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict called on the LRA to unconditionally release children used in their ranks, and underlined the absence of any concrete signs in this regard.
The rebel group has maintained that it had released all children and women abducted or forcibly conscripted some time ago and that those who remained in the bush were women and children related to LRA members.
Ban said that this information cannot be independently verified because of the absence of any direct contacts between the UN and LRA leadership.
Source:Xinhua
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