89% Of Kony Captives Have STDs

EIGHTY-NINE (89%) percent of the women and child-mothers who return from Joseph Kony’s camps in the Sudan are infected by sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, reports Okello Jabweli in Gulu.Ociti Ochora, the Gulu Support the Children Organisation (GUSCO), the deputy programme coordinator on Friday said syphilis and gonorrhea were the other common infections.He was explaining the activities of his organisation to Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, the minister in charge of the presidency.“All the people we receive here are screened. From 1998 about 89% were infected by STDs. At first it was syphilis and gonorrhea. These are treatable. As time went on we started receiving more serious cases of HIV/AIDS,” Ochora said. Bukenya is in Acholi to assess the situation and recommend ways of ending the 16-year old conflict. Ochora said girls were more affected because the rebels marry them off as soon as they are abducted. “What happens is that the young girls are assigned to commanders who already have other wives,” he said. GUSCO vice-chairperson Mary Okee said the children below five years were all born in the Sudan. The youngest child-mother at the centre is aged 13.GUSCO, a local NGO, was founded in 1994 to cater for destitute children affected by the Kony rebellion. The centre is rehabilitating 108 children and their mothers who were recently released by Vincent Otti, the LRA commander leading the current spate of attacks. It is also rehabilitating eight former Kony fighters who surrendered to the UPDF.At the GUSCO centre, the children and their mothers are undergoing training in several crafts, including bicycle repairing, brick-making and tailoring. Bukenya hailed GUSCO for its work and said he was saddened to see children and women exposed to untold suffering at the hands of the rebels.Ends