scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal Article•DOI•

Abducted: The Lord's Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda

Phuong Pham1, Patrick Vinck2, Patrick Vinck1, Patrick Vinck3, Eric Stover2 •
Tulane University1, University of California, Berkeley2, Harvard University3
01 Jun 2007-Social Science Research Network-
TL;DR: The Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations launched The Database Project to better document abduction and help improve the capacity of 8 reception centers in the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Apac, and Lira to collect and analyzes the overall incidence of abduction.
Abstract: Since the late 1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a spiritualist rebel group with no clear political agenda, has abducted tens of thousands of children and adults to serve as porters and soldiers. Experience of forced conscription into the LRA is traumatic and varies in scope and intensity. Children and youth – some as young as 7 and 8 years old – have been forced to mutilate and kill civilians, including members of their own families and communities. In 1994, a group of parents of abducted children to establish the Gulu Support the Children Organization (GUSCO), a reception center in Gulu that provides medical care, counseling, and a number of other services. More than 20,000 children and youth have since passed through GUSCO and other reception centers throughout northern Uganda. In December 2005, the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations launched The Database Project to better document abduction and help improve the capacity of 8 reception centers in the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Apac, and Lira to collect and analyze information about former LRA abductees. At the time, these centers were still providing housing and care to hundreds of children and youth. This report presents the findings of the project, which analyzes the overall incidence of abduction based on those data and provides recommendations aimed at improving the process of reintegrating former LRA abductees into their communities.

Summary (4 min read)

Jump to: [Introduction] – [The Database Project] – [Data Source] – [Limitations] – [A Non-Probability Sampling of Former Abductees] – [Missing Data] – [Duplication] – [Demographics] – [Length of Abduction] – [Period of Abduction] – [Geography of Abduction] – [Experience of Abduction] – [Maternity and Abduction] – [Exposure to Violence] and [Counting the abducted]

Introduction

  • Since the late 1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a spiritualist rebel group with no clear political agenda, has abducted tens of thousands of children and adults to serve as porters and soldiers.
  • Former abductees who have committed or experienced high levels of violence show “substantial increases in emotional distress, as well as poorer family relations.
  • Children are eventually provided with a resettlement package and sent back to live with their families.
  • 18 16 The term “child mothers” is used loosely in northern Uganda and may refer to youth over 18 years old who are single mothers.

The Database Project

  • In December 2005, the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations launched The Database Project to better document abduction and help improve the capacity of the reception centers to collect and analyze information about LRA abductees.
  • The project began with an assessment trip to northern Uganda in late 2005.
  • Nearly half of the centers failed to enter this information into a database because they lacked a computer, trained staff, financial resources, and/or time.
  • From January to April 2006 two graduate students, under the supervision of the research team, worked with the reception centers to gather available data on paper or in other forms for digitization in Microsoft Access 2003 and to develop databases and data management systems at each center.

Data Source

  • Of the nine reception centers operating in early 2006, eight reception centers collaborated with The Database Project.
  • Data from the eight participating reception centers were aggregated in an integrated database.
  • The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda - 8 - Data Integration Cleaning for errors occurred at three levels, also known as Abducted.
  • When two cases shared not all but several items, they were flagged as possible duplicates.

Limitations

  • The aggregated database contains valuable information that can help provide a more accurate picture of the formerly abducted population in Northern Uganda.
  • The data have serious limitations and thus interpretations should be approached with caution.
  • Major limitations to the data are related to the protocol of data collection, the nature of capturing historic data, and the aggregation of data collected using non-standardized instruments and protocols.
  • Because the project builds on data collected over many years, it was impossible to complete missing information or correct erroneous entries.

A Non-Probability Sampling of Former Abductees

  • Reception centers only started functioning in the mid-1990s and thus information about abducted children and adults before this period is not included in the reception center databases.
  • Reception centers also report that some paper-based intake forms were lost due to poor conservation.
  • Hence, the aggregated database does not reflect the total number of former abductees and does not constitute a random sample.

Missing Data

  • Information about former abductees is missing in most of the databases.
  • Data are usually missing for one of two reasons: either the information was not gathered or it was illegible.
  • When asked where they were abducted, some children said they were abducted at home or at school, while others provided a geographic location such as the name of a district, county, subcounty, camp, or village.
  • 19 Jeannie Annan, Christopher Blattman, and Roger Horton, supra note 11.
  • The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda - 10 -, also known as Abducted.

Duplication

  • It is possible that duplicates still exist within a reception center or between centers.
  • Comparing entries was only possible on a limited number of fields.
  • It is also possible that similar names have been spelled differently or that former abductees provided different dates of birth or residences.
  • It was also impossible to compare entries with the database from the Rachele reception center since that center chose not to participate in the research.
  • The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda - 11 -, also known as Abducted.

Demographics

  • A total of 22,759 individuals were included in the aggregate reception centers database, excluding the cases from Rachele reception center.
  • A little over one-third (34%) of all registered former abductees were over 18 years old and some were as old as 81.20.
  • With respect to gender, 24 percent of the former abductees were female and 76 percent were male.
  • The difference in mean age was statistically significant (p<0.01).

Length of Abduction

  • The average length of abduction among former abductees reporting to reception centers was 342 days and the median number of days of abduction was 92 days.
  • Girls and women were, on average, abducted for nearly 2 years (643 days) – more than twice the average length of abduction for boys and men (258 days).
  • 20 Age was based on age upon arrival at the reception center.
  • The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda - 13 -, also known as Abducted.

Period of Abduction

  • Figure 4 illustrates the number of times children and youth were abducted by the LRA and later escaped and were received by the reception centers.
  • As early as 1991, the Ugandan government had begun arming local defense groups, which, in turn, triggered a violent reaction from the LRA.
  • They also started to employ abduction as a systematic tactic to recruit fighters, instill fear, and punish civilians seen as collaborating with the government.
  • 22 See Tim Allen and Mareike Schomerus, supra note 17.

Geography of Abduction

  • The aggregated database contains information on the place of origin for 22,501 former abductees.
  • Four percent were from Lira, 4 percent from Apac, 1 percent from Katakwi, and 1 percent from Adjumani.
  • The second map (Map 2) presents the same information per 10,000 people in the population (prevalence rate), which adjusts for the population size in the subcounty of origin.
  • Looking at prevalence rates, one subcounty had 928 former abductees per 10,000 inhabitants, meaning that roughly 9 percent of the population in that subcounty had been abducted and registered at a reception center.

Experience of Abduction

  • Because no standard tools exist across reception centers, the available information common to all former abductees is relatively limited.
  • Additional information is available for some reception centers.
  • This partial information provides a deeper understanding of the characteristics and experience of some of the former abductees.

Maternity and Abduction

  • Women represent only 24 percent of the former abductees received at all reception centers.
  • This study found that women experienced a longer average stay in captivity than men, except among the older age group (>30).
  • This finding may reflect the LRA practice of abducting girls and women to serve as sexual partners and servants to LRA commanders.
  • Data on 192 former abductees received from May 2003 to July 2005 at the Caritas reception center in Apac show that 14 percent of the females had been ‘given’ to commanders and 10 percent reported giving birth while in captivity.
  • Children born in captivity (157) represented a little less than 2 percent of the 10,883 former abductees who have passed through the reception center operated by World Vision since 1995.

Exposure to Violence

  • Reception centers typically do not collect information on exposure to violence among the former abductees, although narratives about the abduction experience exist and some detailed accounts have also been published.
  • Fifty-eight percent of the former abductees reported being tied up, 31 percent witnessed other former abductees participate in killings, and 15 percent said they participated in killings themselves.
  • 24 Els De Temmerman, Aboke Girls: Children Abducted in Northern Uganda (Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers, 2001); Tim Allen and Mareike Schomerus (London School of Economics), A Hard Homecoming: Lessons Learned from the Reception Center Process in Northern Uganda, An Independent Study, USAID and UNICEF, June 21, 2006.
  • 25 Phuong Pham, Patrick Vinck, Marieke Wierda, Eric Stover, and Adrian di Giovanni supra note 4; Jeannie Annan, Christopher Blattman, and Roger Horton, supra note 11.
  • Seventeen percent reported the death of a father and 4 percent reported the death of a mother.

Counting the abducted

  • The database of registered formerly abducted people does not provide an exhaustive count of all abducted people in northern Uganda.
  • 30 For this figure, the number of entries in the reception centers database over the 1986–2001 period is divided by the number of abductions registered by (1) UNICEF and (2) CPA.
  • The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda - 23 -, also known as Abducted.

Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback

Figures (14)

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

UC Berkeley
Reports
Title
Abducted: The Lord's Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7963c61v
Authors
Pham, Phuong
Vinck, Patrick
Stover, Eric
Publication Date
2007-06-01
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
ABDUCTED
The Lord’s Resistance Army
and Forced Conscription
in Northern Uganda
JUNE 2007
Human Rights Center
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations
Payson Center for International Development
Tulane University
Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations
Human Rights Center
University of California, Berkeley
&
Payson Center for International Development
Tulane University
The Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations conducts research in countries experiencing serious
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. We use empirical research methods to give
voice to survivors of mass violence. We work to ensure that the needs of survivors are recognized and acted
on by governments, U.N. agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. We help improve the capacity of
local organizations to collect and analyze data about vulnerable populations so that their human rights can be
protected.
The Berkeley-Tulane Initiative has undertaken a range of projects. At present, the Initiative is
• assisting centers for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda improve their capacity to collect and analyze
data and provide follow-up services to returnees;
• helping the Victims and Witnesses Unit of the International Criminal Court develop questionnaires to improve
their services for witnesses;
• assisting Human Rights Watch improve its capacity to collect and analyze empirical data on violations of
human rights; and
• collaborating with the International Center for Transitional Justice to conduct research on transitional justice
mechanisms in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Uganda.
The Initiative provides fellowships to graduate students with empirical research skills at the University of
California, Berkeley and Tulane University to work with our partnering institutions.
The Initiative is supported through grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar
Network, and The Sandler Family Supporting Foundation.
Photographs by Thomas W. Morley, Exile Images, www.exileimages.co.uk.
Abducted
The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription
in Northern Uganda
June 2007
Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations
By
Phuong Pham
Patrick Vinck
Eric Stover
Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................ 1
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 5
The Database Project.............................................................................................................. 7
Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 7
Data Source ........................................................................................................................ 7
Data Integration.................................................................................................................. 8
Limitations............................................................................................................................. 9
A Non-Probability Sampling of Former Abductees........................................................... 9
Missing Data ...................................................................................................................... 9
Duplication....................................................................................................................... 10
Findings.................................................................................................................................. 11
Demographics...................................................................................................................... 11
Length of Abduction............................................................................................................ 11
Period of Abduction............................................................................................................. 13
Geography of Abduction ..................................................................................................... 14
Experience of Abduction..................................................................................................... 18
Maternity and Abduction ................................................................................................. 18
Exposure to Violence ....................................................................................................... 18
Estimating the Total Number of Abductions....................................................................... 20
Counting the Abducted..................................................................................................... 20
Conclusions and Recommendations.................................................................................... 23
Annex 1: Center Information .............................................................................................. 26
Annex 2: Community Canvassing Database ...................................................................... 45
Annex 3: Authors and Acknowledgements ........................................................................ 46
Tables
Table 1: Reception Centers Databases...................................................................................... 8
Table 2: Aggregated Database.................................................................................................. 9
Table 3: Factors Associated with Length of Abduction ......................................................... 13
Table 4: Experience of Violence............................................................................................. 19
Table 5: Reasons for Torture and Killing in the LRA ............................................................ 19
Table 6: Abduction Figures from Multiple Sources ............................................................... 21
Figures
Figure 1: Age-Gender Distribution of Returned Abductees................................................... 11
Figure 2: Gender and Length of Abduction............................................................................ 12
Figure 3: Length of Abduction Across Age and Gender (Average Number of Days) ........... 13
Figure 4: Abduction, Escape, and Return Over Time............................................................. 14
Figure 5: Map of Formerly Abducted People (FAP) by Subcounty of Origin....................... 16
Figure 6: Formerly Abducted People (FAP) per 10,000 People by Subcounty of Origin...... 17
Figure 7: Year of Abduction among FAP at Caritas Gulu...................................................... 27
Figure 8: Abduction and Escape Registered at CPA Gulu ..................................................... 32
Citations
More filters
Understanding the complex inter-connections of civil war and communal violence : the case of Uganda

[...]

Gertrude Isimon
02 Jun 2017
TL;DR: This paper explored the connection between civil war and communal violence, which conflict literature has endeavoured to categorise as two significantly different types of intra-state warfare typologies in the context of Northern and North-eastern Uganda.
Abstract: textThis study explores the interlinkages between civil war and communal violence which conflict literature has endeavoured to categorise as two significantly different types of intra-state warfare typologies. A lot has been written about civil wars, but their connections with other conflict categories have so far been under-researched. This is especially true of the connection between civil war and communal violence, which this study explores in the context of northern and north-eastern Uganda. Much quantitative conflict research uses statistical data as the basis for arriving at conclusions about typologies and categories. However, quantitative approaches in conflict studies are usually based on secondary sources, which sometimes have little regard for the complexities of the changing dynamics of violent conflicts in specific locations like Uganda. This study combines a qualitative and interpretative approach with reflections on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) data sets. Empirical data collected from interviews and focus group discussions with various key actors was combined with reflections on dataset measurements of civil war and communal violence in Uganda, and a range of scholarly documents. This study looked closely at quantitative measures of these two conflicts, in northern and north eastern Uganda, questioning the typologies and quantitative indicators used, as well as the key actors identified in the UCDP and PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo) databases. Through two distinct case studies from within Uganda, this research examines the complex interconnections between the civil war in northern Uganda and what is often termed communal violence in north eastern Uganda. The study examines the causes as well as the actors involved and how these conflicts changed course and direction, and what implications this has for the conceptualisation of these conflicts.

20 citations

Dissertation•DOI•
A culturally responsive education program for trauma counsellors in developing countries

[...]

Paula Anne Davis
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The findings show that the trainees adapted some aspects of the therapeutic approaches and tools of counselling gained during their training that were more consistent with collective social harmony, particularly in Uganda; for example, the para-counsellors de-emphasise probing but encourage storytelling as a form of selfdisclosure.
Abstract: The vast majority of training for para-counsellors and community workers who facilitate trauma recovery programs in Uganda and Sri Lanka is based on Western developed conceptual frameworks and techniques that tend to strengthen the resilience of the individual. Yet little known research is available to determine how the gained knowledge and skills through individualistic-oriented training programs are adapted in practice within collective-based contexts where the clients have experienced enduring political violence and civil warfare. Specifically, this research aims to identify how trauma counselling trainees understand, cope and adapt counselling skills and strategies that are designed within a different cultural framework to their own. The researcher adapted an ethnographic case study design. Two case studies were selected. One case study was conducted in Uganda. The second case study was conducted in Sri Lanka. The participants in each of these studies were purposefully selected from among three cohorts of para-counsellors who participated in training programs that were conducted by the researcher in collaboration with local organisations and counsellors in these two countries. Data were collected through a variety of data gathering strategies: interviews with three samples of trainees, examination of cultural artefacts nominated or described by the trainees to represent their trauma experience, observations of the trainees during training sessions, the analysis of the training documents, the diaries produced by the trainees and the researcher’s diary. Data were entered, analysed and coded using the NVivo computer program. Initial readings of the data enabled the researcher to create wide-ranging codes. Then, an iterative process was employed to develop narrower concept categories and sub-categories that were allocated descriptive titles derived from the researcher’s conceptual memos. This facilitated engagement with the process of continuous meaning making to provide an understanding of the research participant’s experiences. The findings show that the trainees adapted some aspects of the therapeutic approaches and tools of counselling gained during their training that were more consistent with collective social harmony, particularly in Uganda; for example, the para-counsellors de-emphasise probing but encourage storytelling as a form of selfdisclosure. A similar adaptation was not observed in Sri Lanka. The para-counsellors here tend to implement the learned trauma-counselling strategies in similar ways to their Western colleagues. The Ugandan clergy de-emphasise their previous understandings of trauma, illness and adversity as being related to the religious viewpoints that underpin African Tribal Religion. However, they encourage the use of Psychoeducation as a therapeutic tool of counselling that explains trauma in terms of neurobiology. The trauma recovery education program would benefit from continuing to facilitate the trainees’ self-disclosure, using the selected therapeutic tools of counselling, as they were generally found to result in their personal growth, assist them in symptom reduction and decrease their distress. Equal numbers of male and female participants may constitute a shift in male dominance and may lead to greater self-disclosure and female participation. Also, the trauma recovery education program may be more beneficial to the trainees if it includes less Western theoretical knowledge and more content that aligns to the trainees’ life experiences and needs, especially in adapting the selected counselling tools to fit the collective value of social harmony in trauma recovery. This may be achieved through role-plays of family situations where several family members exhibit trauma symptoms and behaviours that interfere with their capacity to function in their socially assigned roles.

19 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
The effect of prenatal stress on cooperation: Evidence from violent conflict in Uganda

[...]

Francesco Cecchi1, Francesco Cecchi2, Jan Duchoslav1•
Wageningen University and Research Centre1, University of Groningen2
01 Jan 2018-European Economic Review
TL;DR: This article found that children whose caregivers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to free-ride in the game, while children's 2D:4D digit ratio, a marker of fetal hormone exposure associated with epigenetic effects of maternal distress, does not explain the relationship.

18 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
What Happened to Children Who Returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda?

[...]

Tim Allen1, Jackline Atingo, Dorothy Atim, James Ocitti, Charlotte Brown1, Costanza Torre1, Cristin A Fergus1, Melissa Parker2 •
London School of Economics and Political Science1, University of London2
03 Apr 2021-Journal of Refugee Studies
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had negative consequences and that the majority of children who passed through a reception centre are now settled as young adults on ancestral land, where they are commonly abused because of their LRA past.
Abstract: In northern Uganda, more than 50,000 people were recruited by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) between the late 1980s and 2004, mostly by force. Around half of those taken were children (under 18 years old). A large number were never seen by their families again, but more than 20,000 returned through aid-financed reception centres. Endeavours were made to reunite them with their relatives, who were mostly living in insecure displacement camps. Relatively few were subsequently visited, even after the fighting ended in 2006. Thousands of vulnerable children were largely left to their own devices. This article draws on research carried out in 2004–06 and from 2012 to 2018, and compares findings with other publications on reintegration in the region. It argues that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had negative consequences. The majority of children who passed through a reception centre are now settled as young adults on ancestral land, where they are commonly abused because of their LRA past. With few exceptions, it is only those who spent a long period with the LRA and who are not living on ancestral land who have managed to avoid such experiences.

16 citations

Cites background from "Abducted: The Lord's Resistance Arm..."

  • ...…records were still available) estimated that reception centres received back around D ow nloaded from https://academ ic.oup.com /jrs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jrs/fez116/5780446 by guest on 15 January 2021 25,000 people, including many young adults (Allen and Schomerus 2006; Pham et al. 2007)....

    [...]

  • ...It was also speculated that the total number might possibly be as high as 75,000 (Pham et al. 2007: 22)....

    [...]

  • ...…ic.oup.com /jrs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jrs/fez116/5780446 by guest on 15 January 2021 Akello et al. 2006; Amone-P’Olak 2007; Borzello 2007; Pham et al. 2007), and there have been numerous subsequent publications addressing similar themes (e.g. Mazurana et al. 2008; Blattman andAnnan…...

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
How mothers mediate the social integration of their children conceived of forced marriage within the Lord's Resistance Army.

[...]

Fiona Shanahan1, Angela Veale1•
University College Cork1
01 Jan 2016-Child Abuse & Neglect
TL;DR: The analysis identified turning points of sites of action where young formerly abducted mothers used diverse strategies to support the reintegration of their children born or conceived within the LRA.

16 citations

Related Papers (5)
The Consequences of Child Soldiering

[...]

10 Nov 2010-The Review of Economics and Statistics
Christopher Blattman, Jeannie Annan
Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection

[...]

01 Jan 2007
Michael G. Wessells
Living with bad surroundings : war, history, and everyday moments in northern Uganda

[...]

30 Jan 2008
Sverker Finnström
Kony's message: a new koine?the lord's resistance army in northern uganda

[...]

01 Jan 1999-African Affairs
Ruddy Doom, Koen Vlassenroot
Child Soldiers in Africa

[...]

29 Dec 2005
Alcinda Honwana
Frequently Asked Questions (11)
Q1. What are the contributions in "Abducted: the lord's resistance army and forced conscription in northern uganda" ?

A survey conducted in 2005 in four districts of northern Uganda by UNICEF found that 31 percent of the parents had been abducted by the Lord 's Resistance Army ( LRA ), 23 percent had been mutilated, and 45 percent had witnessed the killing of a family member this paper. 

The objectives of the project were:1. to improve the data-management capacity of all reception centers; 2. to digitize all reception center data; 3. to measure and analyze the overall incidence of abduction based on those data; 4. to assess characteristics associated with abduction; and 5. to provide recommendations aimed at improving the process of reintegrating former LRAabductees into their communities. 

Fourteen percent of females who passed through a reception center in the district of Apac self-reported that they had been “given” to commanders and 10 percent reported giving birth while in captivity. 

Housed in separate units, boys and girls usually spend the day together undertaking a range of activities, including counseling, song and dance, sports, and vocational training. 

A special Child Protection Unit of the Ugandan People’s Army (UPDF) was established to routinely deliver to the reception centers children and youth who have been captured in gun battles or escaped from the LRA. 

32Abducted: The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda- 1 -Since the late 1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a spiritualist rebel group with no clear political agenda, has abducted tens of thousands of children and adults to serve as porters and soldiers. 

Rebel commanders have forced girls, some as young as 12 years old, to serve as sexual and domestic servants1 and forced their fighters to inflict horrific injuries by cutting off the ears, noses, lips, and limbs of defenseless civilians. 

Rather than creating a set of general services for formerly abducted people (e.g. resettlement packages), emphasis should be placed on integrated, community-based programs that invest in youth and children in northern Uganda, including those who were never abducted. 

At the same time, a targeted response should address specific needs of subgroups of abducted people, including reintegration and psychological support services. 

Abducted: The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda- 2 -few, if any, former LRA abductees staying at reception centers as of April 2007. 

Abducted: The Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda- 3 -• LRA abductees have suffered a wide range of abuses during their captivity.