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Add to My Profile | More VideosNorthern Uganda-- "The worst place in the world to be a child today."by ChristinaAs the sun begins to set over Northern Uganda, a spine-chilling sense of urgency spreads like a whispering ghost's haunting breath stirring fear throughout rural villages. Children quickly leave the comfort of home to take part in what has become a nightly trek to avoid torture at the merciless hands of ruthless rebels.The 'night walkers' travel for miles by foot to sleep in streets or cages in hopes of avoiding kidnapping raids conducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). What starts as a few children trekking into town quickly becomes hundreds, then thousands of little bare feet scrambling to reach relative safety before the last sliver of light fades into absolute darkness. Up to 8,000 children have not slept in their own beds one single night for more than a year. As helpless young souls are abducted from their homes underneath the blanket of nocturnal skies, their futures and innocence are stolen along with their fragile bodies. Blaming rebel and government forces for trapping populations in a nightmare of terror, disease and death, a former UN representative calls Northern Uganda the worst place in the world to be a child today.Known as the Pearl of Africa, Uganda is plagued by a triple scourge of war, AIDS and poverty. For twenty years, the LRA has been abducting and terrorizing children, resulting in at least 1.4 million displaced people. Approximately 200 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps provide little security for inhabitants as they battle constant threats and squalid conditions for survival. Trademarks of the LRA include the mutilation of victims, looting and burning of villages, rape and sexual slavery. Notorious for setting fire to camps that shelter vulnerable communities, the calculating rebels destroy the victims' only protection of walls made with mud and straw. As even relative security has long been a non-existent luxury to the people of Northern Uganda, physical and sexual violence against women and children has become another twisted element to the widespread suffering within these camps.Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, seeks to rule Uganda according to the Bible's Ten Commandments. Having kidnapped and forced as many as 30,000 children to work as soldiers or sex slaves, LRA rebels are currently scattered throughout Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo. Erin Patrick of the Migration Policy Institute describes the LRA as 'a mysterious, violent insurgency formed and led by a man who claims God-like powers.'The International Criminal Court issued warrants for Kony and other top LRA commanders for crimes against humanity in October 2005, however the violence continues as LRA leaders have yet to be apprehended. In fact, the LRA's response was to escalate attacks against non-governmental organizations in order to block their victims from receiving humanitarian assistance.Beyond the terror and violent conflict, children and families battle daily against grinding poverty- trapped in a crippling cycle of hunger, illness and poor education.