ReliefWeb

by BILLY NKONO

Since the inclusion of the DRC Armed Forces (in the appendix to the United Nations Secretary-General’s 2003 annual report on Children and Armed Conflict), as a party which recruits and uses children, the Democratic Republic of Congo has organised efforts on multiple fronts to bring an end to this serious transgression.

DRC committed to bringing an end to the recruitment of children

The DRC passed a Child Protection Act in 2009 which penalises recruitment, it approved an Action Plan in 2012 for the adoption of concrete steps towards this commitment, and the President appointed an advisor in this field in order to strengthen the fight against the recruitment and use of children and against other serious violations of children’s rights.

Child protection specialists are working alongside the government and campaigning for the setting up of a sustainable system of prevention, taking into account the fact that managing this will require significant coordination across all areas of the country.

Assistance for children linked to armed groups

In actuality, between 2013 and August 2016, 533 children linked to armed groups (16 girls and 517 boys), were helped in the former province of Equateur, in the province of Kongo Central, in the town of Kinshasa and in Kamina (former province of Katanga), with the cooperation of partners working in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Child Protection Section of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO).

Alluding to the 26 children who came from Kitona (Kongo Central) in April 2016, Remy Mafu of the Network of Educators of Street Children and Young People (REEJER) highlighted that « the children who come through our centres are not all natives of the East.  They come from other provinces too and are reunited (with their families) in almost all provinces of the country ».

Close and vital collaboration

Collaboration between the government and protection specialists is therefore all the more vital, so that children do not leave their area of origin but rather are helped in situ.

During the development of a more systematic approach to prevention, which will be able to safeguard this work in the longer term and across the entire country, it is important that sponsors provide funds for reunification and reintegration activities in the central and western parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

More info about child soldiers in DRC

• Children, Not Soldiers!
• Launch of the ‘Children, not Soldiers’ campaign
• Young Reporters of Katanga Appeal against the Use of Child Soldiers

Thanks to Sweden (SIDA), the USA (USAID), Canada (CIDA), Japan (JICA), the Netherlands, Belgium as well as UNICEF France, Amade, UNICEF Germany and previously CERF for their support to programmes assisting children released from armed groups and forces.

Translated from French by Julia Bayton