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Child soldiers re-enlisted

Up to half of the child soldiers reunited with their families in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile North Kivu province may have been recruited again by warring militias over the past year, according to a new report released on Monday.

Describing the human rights situation in the region as “appalling” Amnesty International also highlighted the rape of several hundred women and girls every month by government forces and armed groups.

North Kivu, near Congo’s eastern border, erupted into violence in August last year in the worst fighting since the official end of the civil war in 2003. With a ceasefire agreement signed in January repeatedly broken, U.N. peacekeepers have been unable to stop the 20,000 government troops and several thousand rebel fighters from brutalising the civilian population.

While the number of child soldiers in eastern Congo is estimated to be between 3,000 and 6,000 — down from 30,000 at the height of the war — Amnesty said that the renewed hostilities had caused a surge in recruitment. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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