Child soldiers in Sudan traumatized

LONDON, March 16, 2004 (UPI) — Children who have fought in the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group in Sudan may remain traumatized for many years, a report said Monday.

The study, published in the scientific journal the Lancet, found more than half the 300 children surveyed had been seriously beaten and 77 percent had witnessed another person being killed.

Thirty-nine percent had killed another person and another 39 percent had abducted other children — the average age of a child abducted is 12. More than one-third of the girls had been raped and 18 percent had given birth while in captivity, reported the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks.

“Since these former child soldiers are often blamed and stigmatized for the countless atrocities they committed — mostly against their own people — their psychological recovery and reintegration can be seriously complicated,” the study said.