In many places around the globe, over many
centuries, adults have forcibly involved children
in war. In more recent times, these forcibly involved
children have come to be collectively referred to as
‘child soldiers’, in an attempt to address the crises
that these children experience within war conditions.
However, recent ¢eld experiences from
northern Uganda show that children, formerly
abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, as well
as the community they return to, do not consider
themselves as soldiers. This paper explains the
reasons why the children reject this categorisation
and prefer to be regarded as war a¡ected. This
paper concludes with the warning that erroneous
categorisation of war a¡ected children might
in£uence, and/or undermine, the e¡ectiveness of
targeted intervention programmes.
