Fri Jul 22, 3:44 PM ET
GULU, Uganda (AFP) - The United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF) pledged to press the international community to take action on the 19-year conflict in northern Uganda, in which tens of thousands of youths have been abducted by rebels.
"We are very concerned about the plight of children, especially because this war targets children," UNICEF director Ann Veneman told reporters, shortly before visiting a rehabilitation centre for youths, who were either rescued or escaped from rebel captivity.
"We will work as UNICEF and the international community to raise the profile of the situation in Uganda. We need to put pressure on those causing this terrible suffering of children. It is disgraceful, it must stop and we will tell the world so," she added.
Veneman was speaking after a tour of the country's northern Gulu district, where she witnessed the plight of children affected by the fighting between government troops and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
Ugandan local officials warned the envoy that they could not assure the children's security and safety from insurgents, who have rejected overtures to start peace talks with Kampala.
"I am beginning to doubt that this dialogue with the LRA can succeed because the rebels have failed to cooperate... I don't guarantee the children's safety so long as (LRA leader Joseph) Kony is still alive," Walter Ochola, Gulu district council chairman, told Veneman.
The notoriously cruel LRA has been fighting the Ugandan government since 1988, ostensibly to establish a regime that would be guided by the Bible.
The ongoing war has killed tens of thousands and displaced over 1.6 million people, 80 percent of whom are women and children, and seen thousands of children abducted to serve as rebel fighters or sex slaves.
According to UNICEF and other aid groups, rebels have abducted around 20,000 children.
Some 40,000 children are estimated to be "night commuters", a term applied to youths who stream every evening into towns because their villages are considered too dangerous after dark.
Despite efforts to restart the moribund peace process, both the LRA and government have stepped up military operations in recent months in what the United Nations says is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Veneman, a former US agriculture secretary, arrived in east Africa on Wednesday for a five-day tour to visit and support children's welfare programmes.
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