Introduction
In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where child soldier recruitment and use is an entrenched feature of ongoing armed conflict, Mai Mai are among the most prolific recruiters and users of children. The Mai Mai - a collective term referring to a range of local militias - may not be as militarily or politically significant as other armed groups in the region, but they have been active throughout the Congo?s two wars and since. Their patterns of child soldier recruitment and use have not significantly been impacted by successive peace agreements, attempts to disarm or neutralize them through integration into the armed forces. International initiatives aimed at halting child recruitment and use have also failed to alter what is a firmly established practice among these groups.
The fact of Mai Mai child recruitment and use is well documented including in successive reports by the UN on the DRC. These reports attest to cycles of recruitment that are closely linked to conflict dynamics, mapping trends in both the recruitment and release of children from Mai Mai and other groups. Reports show, for example, that high numbers of children were released during 2009 and that while recruitment among Mai Mai remains active, the numbers are lower than previously. However, while informative on one level, the figures belie the real issue: it is the environment in which children are living in eastern DRC that makes them vulnerable to recruitment and use by Mai Mai and therefore, until that environment is changed, the vulnerability will remain.
The environment which perpetuates child recruitment by Mai Mai is one of chronic insecurity where notions of community self-defence is seen as justifying the continued existence of local militias; where local attitudes towards children and a belief in mystical powers possessed by them means that children?s association with Mai Mai is considered acceptable and even desirable; where precarious socio-economic conditions provide children and youth with little in the way of opportunities and alternatives to joining armed groups; and in which an absence of rule of law means that crimes including child recruitment and use can be committed with virtual impunity.
In this context, strategies which focus exclusively or primarily on securing the release of children from Mai Mai and returning them to their communities are at best a short-term solution to a larger more complex problem. At the heart of this problem is the government?s ambiguous relationship with the Mai Mai, its lack of commitment to accountability and its failure to deliver on policies and programs to protect the rights and well-being of children.