AIDS programme for insurgency victims in north

Some 200,000 youth are to benefit from a new initiative aimed at tackling HIV/AIDS and early pregnancy in conflict-scarred northern Uganda.

The US $109,000 project, the result of a partnership between the Uganda AIDS Commission and the NGO Save the Children, will specifically target young people affected by the brutal insurgency conducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The LRA are notorious for press-ganging children, with young girls often forced to become the "wives" of rebel commanders.

"Save the Children encourages other organisations to join this campaign to reach out to all the youth in the north and not just the [target number]," Timothy Ahimbisibwe, the Save the Children resident HIV/AIDS programme coordinator told the local News Vision newspaper.