In the Democratic Republic of Congo, children are recruited, raped and killed

Congolese children used in armed conflict and former child soldiers receive psychosocial support at the Orientation and Transit Center for Militia-Associated Children in Mbuji Mayi, Democratic Republic of Congo, 14 March 2018.

NEW YORK — A Congolese teenager appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to protect children in his country as conflict between the military and armed groups in the east of the country takes a horrific toll on children.

“I ask all of you to join in defending children’s rights internationally and in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the 16-year-old boy, whose identity has been protected, said through an interpreter at a meeting on children and armed conflict.

Last year, the United Nations recorded nearly 4,000 serious attacks on children in the central African country, where armed groups have been competing with the military for control of the country’s vast natural resources for years.

More than 1,800 children were recruited by armed groups last year, according to the annual UN report that monitors human rights violations against children.

Sixteen armed groups operating in the country have been denounced for a range of crimes, from kidnapping and forcibly recruiting children to maiming and killing them.

Congolese forces were listed for rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, but the UN noted that they had taken formal steps to prevent such abuses.

Last year, more than 650 children were confirmed to have been killed or maimed, most of them by three armed groups – CODECO, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and M23. Thirty children killed were attributed to the army and police.

The teenager, who spoke to the Security Council, recounted how one day he and two friends were kidnapped, beaten and forcibly recruited by an armed group on their way to school.

“We cried and trembled and begged them to let us go home to our families, but they didn’t listen to us,” he said. “Then they started whipping us and keeping us in the bush. We were heavily guarded and they had orders to kill anyone who tried to escape. I had to leave school to serve this armed group.”

His job was to steal food from the farmers’ fields.

“During the fighting, many (child recruits) were at risk of being killed by the enemy, and others were killed by their groups themselves for fear that they would reveal their secrets if caught by the military,” he said.

After three years in the bush, he had given up hope of ever seeing his family again. One day, he took his chance and fled in search of food. When the army found him, he was arrested and briefly held in a military prison. He underwent rehabilitation after demobilization and is now back in school. But not all children are so lucky.

“Girls were also kidnapped,” he said. “Some became the wives of chiefs, others were kidnapped by other soldiers.”

Escalating sexual violence

According to the United Nations report, 279 girls and two boys were victims of sexual violence last year, including rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery.

“The use of sexual violence as a tactic by armed groups is increasing,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, told the council.

“During my recent visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo, I met adolescent girls who fled with their siblings when their villages were attacked and who are now the heads of their families,” he said.

According to Chaiban, what is particularly worrying is the escalation of the conflict at a time when, at the request of the government, the large UN peacekeeping force is beginning to leave the country.

“There is a very real risk that the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo could soon become a catastrophe,” he said.

It is not only children who are cruelly abused. Women are also exposed to sexual violence on a shocking scale.

In Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the number of cases of sexual violence doubled in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, from 7,500 reported cases to 15,000, said Francois Moreillon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Anyone with a gun thinks they can do whatever they want,” he told reporters.

Moreillon reported how a woman the ICRC treated after being raped told nurses that she and other women had taken condoms into the forest while collecting firewood – an ideal time for attacks on women.

She said they hoped to convince their would-be rapists to wear these masks, which would help prevent sexually transmitted diseases and ease the anger of their husbands, who often abandon their wives when they learn of the rape.

Congo is experiencing one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world, affecting more than seven million people.