KAMPALA, Aug. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior Ugandan official has said that half of the children rescued from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in northern Uganda have HIV-positive.

    Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development Zoe Bakoko Bakoru was quoted by state-owned The New Vision on Tuesday as saying that LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony was abducting and allotting children as young as nine years as wives.

    Addressing a meeting organized Monday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for a visiting European Union delegation in Kampala, the minister said the children needed psychosocial attention because they get traumatized.

    Bakoru said another major challenge was how to end the war in northern Uganda where girls and women face serious health problems.

    A total of 12,000 children in northern Uganda have been abducted by the LRA since June 2002, with at least 3,000 abducted since October 2003 alone.

    The LRA rebels have abducted over 20,000 children as their porters, fighters and sex slaves in their 18-year war in northern Uganda. Enditem¡¡