Freed child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being re-recruited for their valuable fighting experience, Amnesty International said in a report on Monday.
For every two children released, five are captured, said the London-based human rights group in a report on the ongoing conflict in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu.
Amnesty said physical and sexual abuse of women and children was still rife, despite government and armed group commitments to end such practices.
As many as half of the former child soldiers reunited with their families in Nord-Kivu through a national demobilisation programme have since been re-recruited, Amnesty said.
”It is precisely their previous experience with armed groups that makes them valuable recruits and puts these children at greater risk,” said Andrew Philip, Amnesty’s DRC expert, who collected eyewitness testimony in Nord-Kivu.
”The more they know, the more they are at risk of re-recruitment. In this case, experience can be deadly.”
Citing witnesses, the report said some child soldiers who attempted to escape were beaten to death in front of others to discourage them from doing so. Others reported ill-treatment and torture.
”[The boys] were brought out of a pit in the ground and presented to us during a training session,” Amnesty quoted a child soldier as saying.
”[An armed group senior commander] then gave the order to beat them. Two soldiers and a captain pushed them down into the mud. When they tired of kicking them … they beat them with wooden sticks. The punishment lasted 90 minutes, until they died.”
Amnesty’s Philip said the human rights situation in Nord-Kivu was ”appalling”.
”Armed groups and government forces continue to rape women and girls,” he said.
”Even infants and elderly women are among the victims — some of whom have been gang-raped. Disturbingly, rapes are often committed in public and in front of family members, including children.”
Amnesty called on armed groups to release immediately all children associated with their forces, and urged armed groups and the DRC government to combat human rights abuses.
Fighting flared anew on August 28 in Nord-Kivu in violation of a peace accord that was signed in January.
Fighting has forced 100 000 people from their homes in the two Kivu provinces, according to United Nations estimates, raising to 1,3-million the number of displaced people since the start of the year. — Sapa-AFP