By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - More than half the children in refugee camps in Africa's troubled Great Lakes region have been victims of some form of sexual abuse, a report by aid agency World Vision said on Monday. Some of them are forced to have sex just to get food because conditions in the camps are so wretched, the charity said. In one camp in eastern Congo, 43 percent of girls were estimated to have been raped. "The situation for displaced children is bleak," World Vision Regional Coordinator Valarie Kamatsiko said. "At least one out of every two has been a victim of child sexual abuse." Its report said the victims' fellow refugees were to blame, with people having power over children, such as school teachers or foster parents, committing the abuse. Some children had been forced to watch adults have sex. The report, released in Kampala, surveyed refugees from various conflicts living in camps in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. The charity distributed 304 questionnaires to randomly selected children between 10 and 18 years old in camps in the region, on the promise of anonymity. It found evidence of rampant abuse against the 183 girls and 121 boys who answered the questions. "These included: improper sexual comments, asking or forcing a child to strip off his/her clothes ..., touching breasts and sexual parts ... forcing a child to engage in oral, vaginal or anal sex," the report said. The conditions in camps puts children in a particularly vulnerable position, the report said. Many were forced to have sex with adults just to get food. The report also found that sometimes aid agencies, however well meaning, ignited conflicts between refugees when food or other handouts were distributed in ways perceived to be unfair. "Poverty is an overriding causal factor of abuse," it said. "Sexual abuse (is)... prevalent where there is a general lack of respect for human rights. Refugees, who rarely enjoy the protection of their governments, are amongst the most vulnerable." It cited overcrowding, a breakdown law and of the family and ethnic tensions as causes of abusive behaviour. Myths, such as the belief in some places that sleeping with virgins cures HIV/AIDS, were also factors.In addition to tens of thousands of refugees from wars in Sudan, Rwanda and Congo, Uganda hosts 1.4 million people displaced from their homes due to its own 20-year war. Tanzania also hosts thousands of refugees.
