The main victims of the 17-year old war between the Lord's Resistance Army and Ugandan government forces are children, but it is children too, who are doing most of the killing.



Unreported World's Farai Sevenzo and director/cameraman Callum Macrae meet teenage killers who tell them that their commanding officers, the people who ordered them to commit atrocity after atrocity, are as young as ten years old.



Sevenzo and Macrae travel first to Soroti, where rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), have driven further south then ever before. Spreading terror before them and driving thousands from their homes.



They meet frightened refugees and go on the road with a newly created local militia, The Arrow Group, now being armed by the Ugandan government in a desperate attempt to drive the rebels back.



But it is when they head further north, to the beleaguered towns of Gulu and Kitgum, that the real horror of this forgotten war becomes clear.Every night, tens of thousands of children stream into town to take shelter on street corners and in open parks, desperate to escape the terror that haunts their villages.



The LRA, now more of a bloodthirsty cult than a rebel force with a set of definable aims, preys nightly on the very people they claim to represent, the Acholis of Northern Uganda.



The rebels want food and supplies, but most of all they want children; children as young as nine or ten, who they can brutalise and brainwash until they become the rebel soldiers of tomorrow.



In 2001, the LRA abducted one hundred children. Between June 2002 and may this year, they abducted nearly 9,000, and the abductions continue to this day.



Those who don't cooperate are subjected to brutal punishment. Mutilation is common and massacres frequent. But as the team discovers, part of the problem lies with the official government forces (The Ugandan People's Defence Force) who have been fighting the LRA for 17 years.



Sevenzo and Macrae join an anti-rebel patrol with the UPDF, but find an army that is demoralised, under-staffed, under-resourced, and riddled with corruption.



But they also find hope in this terrible situation: Inspiring stories of courage and forgiveness. They meet children who have been abducted by the LRA and escaped, who are being helped to rebuild their lives.



They met religious leaders who daily risk their lives to create dialogue and work for peace: People who argue that there is no way a military solution to this war can ever be justified.



How do you wage war against an army of abducted children?



Unreported World: The Children's War, broadcasts on Channel 4, on Nov 14 2003 at 8pm