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HIV/AIDS South Africa

A glimpse into the HIV prevention policy of Uganda's LRA

Almost nothing is known about life in the ranks of northern Uganda's cult-like rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), but their track record of violence and abduction is no secret.

In the Acholi region, boys are recruited as soldiers and forced to commit vicious crimes, often against their own families, while girls are used as domestic slaves or forced into sexual slavery as the "wives" of rebel commanders.

Given Acholi's high HIV prevalence of nine percent - one and a half times the national average - there has been speculation that infection is rife among the rebels.

A 2003 report by Human Rights Watch, an organisation working to protect such rights internationally, reinforced the notion by pointing out that reception centres for former abductees in the Gulu district, in northern Uganda, had recorded HIV rates as high as 15 percent.

Read the full article: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=73887

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