The Forgotten Victims: Women and Girls in Uganda

Kampala — The fate of thousands of women and girls held as sex slaves and child soldiers by Uganda’s Lords Resistance Army rebels hangs in the balance.

Since the insurgency began in 1986, the LRA has abducted thousands of women and girls. Some find opportunities to escape their captors, but according to a 2008 UNICEF Humanitarian Situation Report, approximately 3,000 women and children are still held by the rebels.

The delay in signing a peace agreement between the government of Uganda and the LRA has raised fresh concerns about their fate.

Forgotten victims of war

“The women in captivity have actually always been forgotten. We must advocate for them. They are still suffering,” says Jane Adong Anywar, Legal Officer at the Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice, an organisation advocating for justice for women in armed conflict and war through the International Criminal Court….

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