After two years of setbacks since Uganda signed an initial peace agreement with brutal rebels in the north, it's not easy for the region's people to go home and rebuild their lives, especially for the children who have been both the main victims and the perpetrators in two decades of conflict.

Everyone's probably underestimated the numbers of children who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a report says, but many of the girls who were forced to be sex slaves are adapting to civilian life better than humanitarian agencies assume. These women have been targeted for aid, but in fact, U.S. academics say, it's just as hard for other women with less sensational stories.

When the Ugandan government and the LRA signed a peace agreement August 2006, it looked as if the end of the nightmare war was in sight. But almost two years on, many northern Ugandans are no nearer to returning to the homes they fled during the conflict.

Joseph Kony, the LRA's charismatic and unpredictable leader, has repeatedly failed to appear to sign a Final Peace Agreement, Ugandan newspaper New Vision reports, saying he needs more clarification of the judicial process that he and other LRA members might face.

People are eager to restart their lives. "I want to move home," Okello - resident of a camp for internally displaced people - told the authors of a report for Italian aid agency AVSI. He said he's motivated to rid his bike 34 km (21 miles) each day to rebuild a hut in his ancestral village.

"I want to get back to what is there. I don't want my family to stay longer in the camp, where we have nothing. There we still rely on food from (the U.N. World Food Programme) WFP and blankets from NGOs," Okello said.

Since the agreement was first signed, only about half of the more than 1.9 million people who had been internally displaced by the conflict have returned to their ancestral villages or moved to transit sites nearer to their homes.

Everyone is left in limbo by delay after delay to a final deal, especially the young people who have been both the primary victims and the primary actors in northern Uganda's protracted war.

UNDERREPORTED ABDUCTIONS

Most children have spent years where they've known only the camp, and a high percentage have been abducted by the LRA at some point in their life.

In fact, child abduction has been underreported, according to a survey by Boston-based Tufts University. Its researchers found at least 66,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 30 had been abducted. Previous data had estimated 25,000 abductions since 1990.

And there is little understanding of what impact the magnitude and nature of the violence suffered by young people - women and girls especially - has had. The Tufts report published in April, part of a Survey for War Affected Youth (SWAY), covered more than 600 women and girls in northern Uganda.

Forced marriages were perpetrated on a wide scale in LRA-controlled areas, with a quarter of abducted females forced into marriage with LRA fighters and commanders. However, the Tufts report says, most girls were not used primarily as "sex slaves" and played support roles within the LRA

"The findings challenge the conventional wisdom on women after war", writes Chris Blattman, one of the SWAY authors, on his blog. "Almost all aid has been targeted at women formerly abducted by the rebel group, especially those forced to become 'wives' to rebel commanders, and who returned from the bush with children," he writes.

"These women are much more accepted and supported by their communities and families than we think, and in many cases are doing just as well (or, rather, just as poorly) as other women. Yet aid seldom reaches those women without sensational stories."

CLASSES ON THE FLOOR

The vitality of Acholiland - the ethnic region most targeted during the conflict, even though Kony is Acholi too - depends heavily on the education of its young people. This is a society where the median age is just 14 years.

Without enough teachers, classrooms, desks or books, many villagers are making do with whatever they have in the places where they've returned. Using the shade of a tree as a classroom, or sitting on the floor of an empty room is common, and classes are going ahead despite the conditions.

Forty-two percent of the primary schools in wartorn Kitgum district - that's 34 out of 81 - are not open. Of the functioning schools, 85 percent - 40 out of 47 - need repairs of some sort.

The return process has not been an easy one for the Ugandan population, and many internally displaced people are reluctant to go home before a final peace agreement. According to estimates from the U.N. refugee agency, less than 10 percent of returnees from camps are living in their village of origin in Acholiland.

Humanitarian conditions in the camps for displaced people remain extremely poor, while conditions in some transit sites are even worse, with little access to clean water and sanitation.

Organisations from different side of the aid world - both emergency relief experts and and post-war development workers - need to help each other out with data and advice, AVSI's report concludes.

And people in the north need international support now than ever, to continue the return process help up keep their hopes up despite Kony's latest delay, aid agencies working Uganda said in a group statement.

"International fatigue and cynicism are to be expected after such a setback, but the solution is not to cut and run," says Peter Quaranto, researcher for lobbying organisation Resolve Uganda. "International persistence to uphold the peace process, ensure civilian protection across the region and limit the LRA's exit options is more crucial now than ever."

People from northern Uganda have demonstrated to the world their strength and resilience. Another betrayal would not be fair.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.