By Elizabeth Costner
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A UN mission in the DRC reported yesterday that hundreds of under-aged boys and girls are being forcibly recruited by rival armed groups and sent to the front lines of the escalating conflict in the North Kivu province in the far eastern part of the country.   “Many testimonies gathered recently confirmed that after being forcibly recruited, children receive military training and are sent to the front line for fighting, while others are used for logistical tasks or as sexual slaves.”

The UN mission, known as MONUC, has identified two groups, one of which is led by the renegade General Laurent Nkunda, as the main groups responsible for the recruitment.  The groups are known to be deliberately canvassing and searching schools and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) looking for children.  This has led to the closure of a number of schools and families that have tried to resist the recruitment have faced retaliation. 

Since 2004 the UN has rescued an estimated 8,500 child soldiers, however it is believed that many of these children have been re-recruited in the last few months or have been used as sex slaves.  MONUC pledged to increase its efforts to protect children and to prevent their forced recruitment, and called on the rebel groups to abort the process.

The UN has been increasingly worried about the humanitarian situation inside North Kivu, where tens of thousands of people are on the move due to increased fighting.  An estimated 800,000 Congolese are now internally displaced within the province with 170,000 of those in the last four months alone.

The security situation in North Kivu has made it difficult for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other aid agencies to reach many areas of the province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda.  More than 4,500 MONUC troops have been deployed to help protect Goma and the key town of Sake.

For more information, please see:

UN News Centre – DR Congo: UN mission says recruitment of child soldiers is surging – 14 December 2007

AP – UN: Congo Groups Recruiting Children – 14 December 2007

The Age (Australia) – More needs to be done for child soldiers, says UN official – 14 December 2007