In northern Uganda, more than 30,000 children were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) between 1996 and 2000. Children returning from the LRA passed through aid-financed reception centres. Endeavours were made to reunite them with their relatives, who were mostly living in insecure displacement camps. Few were subsequently visited. This article draws on long term ethnographic research and interviews with 234 of those who received care at the largest reception centre. Influential work on wars suggests people returning from rebel groups, including the LRA, are likely to be more politically active and to take on leadership roles. Our findings suggest the opposite. The vast majority of those in the sample feel rejected by relatives, friends and/or neighbours. Possession by spirits (cen), and fear of cen, shape social relationships in fraught and distressing ways. There is, too, scant evidence that the ‘care’ provided by humanitarian agencies has successfully fostered processes enabling social re-integration. Detailed ethnographic research carried out over several years, reveals the extent of the failure. The paper summarises the findings, and interrogates the processes that have facilitated long term neglect of these vulnerable people.