Return of the Child Soldiers

A BBC World Service Heart and Soul documentary

How can one reconcile religious faith with trauma and atrocity?

For 20 years, Northern Uganda was a no-go area because of a brutal insurgency by one of Africa's most feared rebel militias: the Lord's Resistance Army, who claimed they wanted to rule the country according to the Ten Commandments.

But now, the LRA fighters have withdrawn into neighbouring countries, and the children they abducted have returned to their communities.

But these former child soldiers have never known normal life - how can they be rehabilitated?

Paul Bakibinga visits the remote town of Patongo, where one married couple, David and Agnes Lagen, are working with traumatized returnees.

Agnes was herself abducted and forced to witness and take part in atrocities.

Now she and David offer former child soldiers vocational training and trauma counselling.

One of the most difficult aspects of their work is the spiritual dimension.

The children were made to believe that slaughter and brutality are God's work, yet many of them still express a strong religious faith - how can this dilemma be addressed? (BBC)

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