The boys are dressed in T-shirts and shorts, the girls in light summer dresses. Some are carrying a few morsels of food, others tattered blankets, but most have nothing at all.
What unites them is the mortal fear of abduction and enslavement by soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has terrorised the region for the past 17 years.
“If [rebel leader Joseph] Kony catches us, he might rape or murder us or force us to carry heavy loads through the bush. If we fall down or get tired, one of his soldiers will kill us with a panga,” Brenda Abalo (12) says. “We are all so scared of this happening to us.”
That fear is completely justified among the approximately 15 000 children who stream into Gulu, northern Uganda, every night. Since the beginning of “Operation Iron Fist”, the Ugandan government’s offensive against LRA bases in Sudan in May last year, the districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Lira and Soroti have exploded into a fresh paroxysm of violence.
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the LRA has abducted an estimated 5 000 children since June last year and 20 000 since the war began in 1986.
Boys taken by the LRA are ruthlessly indoctrinated; forced to rape, torture and murder other captured civilians; burn villages; carry out raids and participate in forced abductions.
Girls, some as young as 10, become sex slaves and the “wives” of rebel commanders. They run the risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/ Aids infection.
Many never return from the bush.
“The fear of abduction is everywhere and villages within 5km of the town are nearly empty at night,” Gulu child protection and welfare officer Jimmy Okuut says.
“The LRA used to target children between the ages of 11 and 18, but now they don’t mind who they get. They are taking adults and even children as young as seven.”
Okuut says that although the children who flee into Gulu feel they are relatively safe in the centre of town, they are not. “All of these children are sleeping in the open and now it is the rainy season. When it rains they are sleeping in the street and they are getting sick. There is no medical team to treat them and finding shelter is paramount.”
Dr Paul Onek, the district director of health services, paints an equally bleak picture. “There is a lot of malaria and they are also prone to respiratory tract infections and pneumonia,” he says. “When we visit the children, almost everyone is coughing.”
Making a bad situation worse is the fact that the youngsters come into town unaccompanied by their parents, who usually choose to sleep in the bush near their villages or on the outskirts of Gulu.
District officials say adolescent boys and girls are seen huddled together on the streets or in the grounds of the Holy Rosary church, Lacor hospital, Bus Park, the Ministry of Works or the Catholic mission where they have gone to seek shelter.
Other underage children frequent the discos and cinemas where they come into contact with local men who will offer them food, a blanket or shelter in return for sexual favours. Local officials again fear for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/Aids.
“Because there is no supervision, these youngsters are indulging in sexual activities,” Onek says. “These are young, young children who should not be exposed to sex but unfortunately it is taking place.”
Canadian Physicians for Aids and Relief programme manager John Komakech agrees. “A man was arrested inside Bus Park trying to rape a girl and someone else was found trying to molest an eight-year-old-girl,” he says.
“The children are exposed to danger and there are sexual activities going on.”
Relief agencies are trying to provide assistance, but there is not nearly enough to go around.
Save the Children (Denmark), the African Medical Research Foundation and Noah’s Ark are building temporary emergency shelters, while Unicef and the International Organisation for Migration have provided blankets.
However, according to Komakech, the interventions do not come close to addressing the needs of the displaced young people.
“Some shelters are going up but they are not enough to take care of all the children. They need protective gear like blankets and polyethylene sheeting to help shelter them from the rain.”
Onek laments the lack of help that Gulu is receiving. “The international community is not serious about us. I watch the news and there is nothing on Gulu. The world is convinced that the country is good all over, but when you come to the north it is a different Uganda. The situation here is grim.”