Congo Slammed By UN For Child Soldier Recruitment
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The numbers of children deployed as frontline fodder have reached critical proportions, according to the charity Save the Children, with around 800 children known to have been recruited in the past year.
Current levels are estimated to be as high as 1,800 following the latest discovery, which saw pupils' books and papers burned at a secondary school in Tongo, in the Rutshuru territory, some 60 (40 miles) kilometres north of Nord-Kivu provincial capital Goma.
"Our latest information shows 200 pupils were forcibly recruited on December 17, with school materials and ID cards being burnt," said Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for MONUC, the UN mission to the battle-scarred country.
He added that child soldier recruitment is "a crime of war and a crime against humanity."
Congo's army has deployed almost 25,000 troops in the troubled eastern province to fight an estimated 4,000 men loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, whose men were held responsible by MONUC for taking the children in Tongo.
Other forces active in the volatile area include a Rwandan Hutu militia, Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Mai Mai militia.
According to several humanitarian groups, the cashiered general's forces are also continuing recruitment in refugee camps at Kitchanga, some 50 kilometres north-west of Goma.
MONUC also strongly condemned the reported burning of houses and rape of womenfolk in the village of Shomba, again pointing the finger at soldiers loyal to Nkunda.
The spokesman added: "Unfortunately, we must acknowledge that civilians are the first to suffer from the unrest in this area, as with the whole of Nord-Kivu.
"Rape, pillage (and) the recruitment of child soldiers are practised by all Nord-Kivu fighters."
Labels: Kemal Saiki, Laurent Nkunda, Lord's Resistance Army, Save The Children
