A/HRC/4/72 page 12 even wives. The case study of Goribi presents a testimony on the circumstances of abduction” (p. 47). About a half (46.6 per cent) of abductees are abducted for a period of less than six months, males are likely to stay a shorter time than females (58.7 per cent compared with 32.5 per cent stayed for less than six months). Older abductees are also more likely to escape, as expected (p. 58). 43. The 2003 ILO-IPEC publication on “Use of children in armed conflict”2 notes that “There is also a distinctive pattern of trafficking in some African countries related to the exploitation of children under armed conflict. This involves the abduction and transportation of children for and by both government and rebel militias. There is also evidence that during periods of armed conflict, children in vulnerable situations are trafficked and sold into brothels by both armed forces and by exploiters who take advantage of the social disruption and family break-up caused by the conflict” (p. 2). The 2003 publication “Enfance blessée, l'utilisation des enfants des conflits armés en Afrique centrale”, 2003,3 further observes that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo there is recruitment by abduction of very young children (starting at 6) to serve as guards of sacred items. 44. The UNICEF draft country programme document for Uganda of March 2005 (E/ICEF/2005/P/L.2) noted that “about 20,000 children have been abducted since 1986, serving as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. Around 35,000 children, unaccompanied by adults, commute into towns each night to avoid abduction, becoming exposed to new hazards” (para. 2). 45. With respect to Sudan, in a press release of May 2003, UNICEF noted that since the formation of the Government of Sudan’s Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children in May 1999, UNICEF had supported work by the authorities and tribal communities in western Sudan to find abducted children and women and to reunify them with their families. It further endorsed the research of the Rift Valley Institute, finding that the number of children and adults whose families do not know where they are - some 10,380 according to the data released today by the Institute - demonstrates how serious the problem of abduction remains, even though the incidence of abduction has fallen over the past two years. 46. In 2004, UNHCR reported that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Liberia experienced physical attacks, threats and intimidation by the fighters from all sides, as well as the abduction of women and children. This situation improved considerably with the arrival of the peacekeeping forces and as the humanitarian community regained access to the camps. 47. The Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons provided input making the following key points, as substantiated by the Global IDP Project (now the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre): • Abduction is a common and systematic practice in situations of internal displacement. In Africa, the phenomenon of abduction has been reported in Uganda, the Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and Democratic Republic of the Congo; • Displaced children may be targets of abduction and armed recruitment by non-State actors (paramilitary and rebel groups) and government forces; • Abduction may be a cause of internal displacement, and internal displacement may also be a cause of abduction; • Certain internally displaced children, such as unaccompanied and separated children, are more vulnerable to abduction;