Nov 12 2008
Increased fighting in DRC bolsters recruitment of child soldiers
(Source: Associated Press)
The latest violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is expected to reinvigorate child recruitment efforts, IRIN reported this week.
The intensification of fighting in the North Kivu region, which resumed in August between the Congolese government and the rebel Congres National pour la Defense du Peuple (CNDP), is expected to raise the number of children fighting in the region well beyond the estimated 3,000 already abducted.
Ishbel Matheson, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, told IRIN:
Children who are forced into armed conflict suffer terrible physical and emotional damage. They are traumatized by being separated from their families and may witness executions, beatings, and torture. Many young girls now have babies.
Hundreds of schools have been forced to close due to the risk of abduction. Troops have been known to attack them, raiding even primary school classrooms for fresh combatants and concubines.
