Unreported World

In the jungles of North East Congo, the Unreported World team uncovers evidence that the Lord's Resistance Army - one of the world's most brutal rebel groups - has begun a new campaign of terror, and talks to survivors with stories of unimaginable horror.

Reporter Nima Elbagir and director Edward Watts begin their journey in the town of Dungu, which is now home to tens of thousands of people who have recently fled there from their villages. Aid groups estimate that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted up to a thousand children in Congo since it restarted operations at the end of last year, and refugees in the town confirm that children from outlying villages have been taken.

The team joins a UN mission flying into a nearby village, Duru. It's been under attack for the past six months and this is the first time anyone has succeeded in reaching it. It's deserted, but suddenly groups of people start appearing out of the jungle. They tell the team that LRA fighters attacked the village, abducting nearly a hundred children before burning their homes and killing several villagers.

On returning to Dungu town, the team find a 15 year old who had been taken from the school in Duru before escaping his captors. He tells Elbagir that another group of boys attempted an escape and were recaptured by LRA soldiers. They were laid face down and then the other children were forced to club them to death. Another victim says he was captured on the outskirts of his village, tied to a tree and then hacked with machetes.

Elbagir and Watts head to Doruma, hemmed in by fighting on all sides. They are escorted through the jungle to Batande village, which was attacked on Christmas Day. One local says villagers had come out of church to eat Christmas lunch when the LRA surrounded them, tied them up and marched them into the bush to slaughter them.

Heading out through the jungle once more, Elbagir and Watts witness at first hand the horrors which have befallen the villagers. They begin to find bodies every few yards, first that of a pregnant woman, and then more and more - face down in the mud with their hands tied together and their skulls smashed in.

These victims are just some of the estimated 900 people the LRA massacred over Christmas and Boxing Day in this area. At least 300 have been slaughtered around Doruma alone. One local investigator tells Elbagir that when the LRA enters a village his assumption is that everyone there will die.

One of the children who escaped from the LRA tells the team that they were never told why they were fighting. To try to get an answer, Elbagir and Watts travel to Gulu in Uganda. They meet Brigadier Simon Odongo who was abducted as a child by the LRA and who fought with them for more than 18 years.

He tells Unreported World the group was waging a campaign of terror designed to scare people into leaving their villages so the LRA could take over the territory. He also reveals how the group's leader, Joseph Kony, convinces his child soldiers that they are engaged in a fight to the death against the whole world.

• WATCH NOW ON

Clips from Episode 1

• Christmas Day…

• All Clips (1)