DRC rebels recruiting kids

2006-04-01 17:10

Kinshasa - A dissident general is recruiting large numbers of children to fight in the conflicted North-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Veronique Aubert, a researcher for the human rights organisation said: "For several weeks, anti-government forces loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda have been recruiting children, often by force, in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories of North-Kivu.

"Many others, fearing abduction by Nkunda's troops, have been forced to flee their homes and families to seek protection in major towns and cities.

She said many of the children being recruited had been already formally passed through a release and family re-unification programme.

Aubert said, in one week in March and from one children's centre in the region, 14 of the 782 children re-unified with their families within the last year had been re-recruited.

She said the recruitments and continuing insecurity in North-Kivu were having "a devastating effect on programmes to re-unify children formerly associated with armed groups with their families, and to develop projects to support them in their return to civilian life".

Many of the organisation's allegations of child soldier recruitment concern the 83rd army brigade, formerly part of the RCD-Goma armed political group.

- AFP