During the late 1980s, Uganda's most tragic military-related problem was the large number of children, mostly orphans, who had attached themselves to the army. The government estimated that there were several thousand kadogos (child soldiers), most of whom were under the age of sixteen (see Social Welfare , ch. 2). Within days of Museveni's seizing control of the government, his press office announced that kadogos would be disarmed and enrolled in schools designated for that purpose. The first of these, the Mbarara Kadogo School, opened in February 1988, enrolling about 800 pupils between ages five and eighteen, according to the school's commander. An important government aim was to deter these pupils from joining anti-NRA rebel groups still fighting against government control. By 1990 kadogos were no longer evident in regular army units.
Data as of December 1990