OWN CORRESPONDENT, New York | Wednesday
THE UN children’s agency, UNICEF, says it has found 163 child soldiers – some as young as nine years old – from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a political education camp for Congolese rebels in Uganda.
The children, aged between nine and 17 and including three girls, were part of a group of 694 people flown to Kyankwanzi training camp in western Uganda in August from the tense border town of Bunia.
Bunia is under the control of the Congo Liberation Front (CLF), a newly formed umbrella group of Ugandan-backed rebel movements led by businessman Jean-Pierre Bemba.
The children have been identified and registered and will be taken into UNICEF’s interim care, the agency said.
It quoted UNICEF representative Michel Sidibe as saying: “Above all, we have to take every measure to ensure these children are not returned home to be thrown into combat situations.”
Sidibe said UNICEF would provide them with “the psycho-social care and schooling they require in the interim before they are reunited with their families.”
Earlier this month, UNICEF said most of the child soldiers were believed to be members of the Hema ethnic group, who have been driven out by fighting in Bunia in late January.
Hema warriors clashed with their traditional foes, the Lendu, who had attacked the town’s airport to disable a Ugandan combat helicopter used against them in nearby forests, a UN source said.
Sidibe said all the children in Kyankwanzi camp had said they wished to be reunited with their families.
He added that a 16-member assessment team led by UNICEF had been granted full access to all the children during a three-day visit to the camp, and said he was pleased with the cooperation of the Ugandan authorities.
The assessment team included representatives of different UN agencies as well as Ugandan officials and NGOs. – AFP