"One of the child soldirs, Jean Vierre Magondo said; “We were on our way back
from school when we met the rebels, they forced us to carry the luggage for
them and then told us to go with them. They told us to go ahead of them so that
in case of an attack, we would be the ones to be killed. That is how some of
our friends died.”"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Congo children pay the price of war
Patson Bareire & Reuters
Ishasha
Jean Marie Kambere has lived all his 28 years inside the Democratic Republic of
Congo, but from what he has witnessed in the past two weeks, he is not in a
hurry to return. He said it will take something extra ordinary for him to
forgive and forget, because the experience will have a lasting impression on
him.
He is one of thousands of Congolese who were abandoned by the DRC army as Gen.
Laurent Nkunda’s forces closed in on the eastern frontier.
Mr Kambere, who says he was a teacher in a local school, said the school system
has been run down and it will take many more years to restore it to what it was
even if the war came to an end.
He talked of the forceful recruitment of child soldiers, most of whom were
removed from school and taken to fight the war whose causes they don’t
understand. Some have since been killed while others cannot find their way home
or even reunite with their next of kin.
One of the child soldirs, Jean Vierre Magondo said; “We were on our way back
from school when we met the rebels, they forced us to carry the luggage for
them and then told us to go with them. They told us to go ahead of them so that
in case of an attack, we would be the ones to be killed. That is how some of
our friends died.”
In the last few months the fighting between the rebels and the government
soldiers has escalated and more children are being kidnapped to bolster the
numbers of the fighters who, unfortunately, are using them as pawns on the
frontline.
According to the Save the Children, a United Kingdom based charity organisation
operating in the war zone, the recruitment of child soldiers is nothing new in
the DRC conflict. All the armed militia groups are targeting the schools for
recruitment.
Ms Beverley Roberts, an official with Save the Children, said there are reports
that the children are being used as porters and also forced to transport arms
for the rebels. “Unfortunately you will find children being sexually abused
while others are forced to fight yet they are not trained,” she said.
A Uganda Red Cross official at Ishasha, on the Uganda Congo border, Mr Benjamin
Cadet, admits that they have received children who were once conscripted in the
rebel ranks but managed to escape. “Most of the children we receive here are
traumatised. That is why we have decided to have counselling sessions for them
before we take them to the refugee camps,” Mr Cadet told Daily Monitor
recently. “We are fleeing because the people who were supposed to protect us
run away when they heard that the rebels were closing on them,” the refugees
said.
It is believed that over 3,000 children have been recruited to join the rebel
ranks, a fact the international community has ignored but which will have far
reaching consequences on the people of Eastern Congo even if the war ended
today.
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