Published on: Mali & Guardian
By Haribou Bangre
May 14, 2013
Source: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-14-dr-congo-province-in-push-to-save-child-soldiers
The United Nations has several ongoing efforts to stop the enlistment of
children in the troubled country but this is the first grassroots campaign in
the southeastern Katanga province.
Launched on April 1, the initiative led by Congolese non-governmental
organisation Action Against Poverty (ACP) targets children, the broader
population and the armed movements themselves.
Across the DR Congo – a potentially wealthy, resource-rich nation ravaged by
successive wars from 1996 to 2003 and still highly volatile in the east –
thousands of children are believed to have been recruited into militias.
The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) estimates that 4 500 children serve in
militias across the vast nation, while "more than 1 500 children are
currently being used by armed forces or groups in Katanga".
"Often, it's children who emerged from these armed forces and groups and
returned to their community who bear witness to the tricks that armed groups use
to attract youths. There are only rare cases of fully voluntary enlistment,"
says Anna Paola Favero, a child protection officer with Unicef.
The proportion of girls enlisting is "particularly worrying", Unicef
adds.
Triangle of Death
The so-called "Triangle of Death" is
in the north of the mineral-rich Katanga province, a remote and forgotten area
that contrasts with the richer south. Its boundaries are set by
the towns of Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto.
Two tribal militias are at work there: the Kyungu Mutanga Mai Mai, known as
"Gedeon", and the Kata-Katanga Mai Mai – and both are active recruiters of child
soldiers.
"They kidnap young minors, whom they train and later force to take part in
attacks against the population and the Congolese army (FARDC)," the Congolese
Association for Access to Justice said in a statement in mid-January.
When the Kata-Katanga militia recruited 14-year-old Paul and told him that
they would give him training, the Congolese teenager and his family were
delighted: he would receive an education they could not afford to give him.
"They said that they were going to train the liberators of the sons and
daughters of Katanga," the youngster told the news agency Syfia Grands Lacs.
"Because I wasn't at school for lack of means, I went along. My main goal was
to study ... My parents were happy because that was a chance for me to be
trained."
In March, along with 39 other child soldiers, Paul took part in an armed
rally held by the militia in Katanga's capital Lubumbashi.
He realised that "everything that our leaders were saying was a lie. Death
was waiting for us."
"Me, I shall never go into an armed group again. All that I ask is that
somebody helps me return to my family and to study."
Child soldiers
According to the charity War Child,
Africa has the largest number of child soldiers, with kids serving conflicts in
Chad, Somalia, Sudan and the Central African Republic as well as the DR
Congo.
The widespread horror of using child soldiers is exposed in Johnny Mad
Dog, an award-winning 2008 war film by French director Jean-Stephane
Sauvaire set in an unidentified African country.
The film portrays indoctrinated child killers, often high on cocaine, in
shockingly violent clashes, before they are cast out by ruthless warlords who
have no further use for them and abandon them to their fate.
Local authorities in Katanga have already reached out to young people to urge
them to quit the militias.
But in practice, those who flee run the risk of being killed.
Favero explains that the armed movements use "traditional beliefs and myths
that make the children believe that they will be invincible to bullets". Or they
are told that those who defend their group will be considered as "heros and earn
lots of money".
The campaign is using local radio and calling public meetings to reach
5 000 children and 30 000 people overall in five communities.
Organisers tell parents that their children should not be taking part in war,
but should instead be in school.
They also address the militias themselves, often forming part of the
community.
"The leaders and community networks for the protection of children
communicate with the armed movements, to whom they give the most appropriate
messages," Favero adds.
Dissuasive tactics
Tactics are meant to be dissuasive
and include reminders that the recruitment of child soldiers, some of whom take
up arms as young as 12, is a war crime now being prosecuted by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
In March the ICC indicted one of the DR Congo's most notorious warlords,
General Bosco Ntaganda – better known by his fearsome nickname of "the
Terminator".
Ntaganda faces trial for recruiting children in the northeastern Orientale
province.
Last year his ally Thomas Lubanga was jailed for 14 years for using child
soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 to 2003.
The campaign, financed by Unicef – which is also working to prevent the
enlistment of children in Orientale and the highly unstable eastern provinces of
North and South Kivu – has produced "encouraging results", Kadinga adds.
If children held by Katanga militias are freed, Unicef will immediately care
for them before they return to their homes, Kadinga says.
Demobilisation activities are part of a national action plan agreed in
October 2012 by the Kinshasa government and the UN mission in DR Congo, Monusco,
which also concerns children enlisted into the state's armed forces and security
services. – AFP
By Haribou Bangre
May 14, 2013
Source: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-14-dr-congo-province-in-push-to-save-child-soldiers
The United Nations has several ongoing efforts to stop the enlistment of
children in the troubled country but this is the first grassroots campaign in
the southeastern Katanga province.
Launched on April 1, the initiative led by Congolese non-governmental
organisation Action Against Poverty (ACP) targets children, the broader
population and the armed movements themselves.
Across the DR Congo – a potentially wealthy, resource-rich nation ravaged by
successive wars from 1996 to 2003 and still highly volatile in the east –
thousands of children are believed to have been recruited into militias.
The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) estimates that 4 500 children serve in
militias across the vast nation, while "more than 1 500 children are
currently being used by armed forces or groups in Katanga".
"Often, it's children who emerged from these armed forces and groups and
returned to their community who bear witness to the tricks that armed groups use
to attract youths. There are only rare cases of fully voluntary enlistment,"
says Anna Paola Favero, a child protection officer with Unicef.
The proportion of girls enlisting is "particularly worrying", Unicef
adds.
Triangle of Death
The so-called "Triangle of Death" is
in the north of the mineral-rich Katanga province, a remote and forgotten area
that contrasts with the richer south. Its boundaries are set by
the towns of Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto.
Two tribal militias are at work there: the Kyungu Mutanga Mai Mai, known as
"Gedeon", and the Kata-Katanga Mai Mai – and both are active recruiters of child
soldiers.
"They kidnap young minors, whom they train and later force to take part in
attacks against the population and the Congolese army (FARDC)," the Congolese
Association for Access to Justice said in a statement in mid-January.
When the Kata-Katanga militia recruited 14-year-old Paul and told him that
they would give him training, the Congolese teenager and his family were
delighted: he would receive an education they could not afford to give him.
"They said that they were going to train the liberators of the sons and
daughters of Katanga," the youngster told the news agency Syfia Grands Lacs.
"Because I wasn't at school for lack of means, I went along. My main goal was
to study ... My parents were happy because that was a chance for me to be
trained."
In March, along with 39 other child soldiers, Paul took part in an armed
rally held by the militia in Katanga's capital Lubumbashi.
He realised that "everything that our leaders were saying was a lie. Death
was waiting for us."
"Me, I shall never go into an armed group again. All that I ask is that
somebody helps me return to my family and to study."
Child soldiers
According to the charity War Child,
Africa has the largest number of child soldiers, with kids serving conflicts in
Chad, Somalia, Sudan and the Central African Republic as well as the DR
Congo.
The widespread horror of using child soldiers is exposed in Johnny Mad
Dog, an award-winning 2008 war film by French director Jean-Stephane
Sauvaire set in an unidentified African country.
The film portrays indoctrinated child killers, often high on cocaine, in
shockingly violent clashes, before they are cast out by ruthless warlords who
have no further use for them and abandon them to their fate.
Local authorities in Katanga have already reached out to young people to urge
them to quit the militias.
But in practice, those who flee run the risk of being killed.
Favero explains that the armed movements use "traditional beliefs and myths
that make the children believe that they will be invincible to bullets". Or they
are told that those who defend their group will be considered as "heros and earn
lots of money".
The campaign is using local radio and calling public meetings to reach
5 000 children and 30 000 people overall in five communities.
Organisers tell parents that their children should not be taking part in war,
but should instead be in school.
They also address the militias themselves, often forming part of the
community.
"The leaders and community networks for the protection of children
communicate with the armed movements, to whom they give the most appropriate
messages," Favero adds.
Dissuasive tactics
Tactics are meant to be dissuasive
and include reminders that the recruitment of child soldiers, some of whom take
up arms as young as 12, is a war crime now being prosecuted by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
In March the ICC indicted one of the DR Congo's most notorious warlords,
General Bosco Ntaganda – better known by his fearsome nickname of "the
Terminator".
Ntaganda faces trial for recruiting children in the northeastern Orientale
province.
Last year his ally Thomas Lubanga was jailed for 14 years for using child
soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 to 2003.
The campaign, financed by Unicef – which is also working to prevent the
enlistment of children in Orientale and the highly unstable eastern provinces of
North and South Kivu – has produced "encouraging results", Kadinga adds.
If children held by Katanga militias are freed, Unicef will immediately care
for them before they return to their homes, Kadinga says.
Demobilisation activities are part of a national action plan agreed in
October 2012 by the Kinshasa government and the UN mission in DR Congo, Monusco,
which also concerns children enlisted into the state's armed forces and security
services. – AFP
The Analysis:
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are 2 tribes that are known to recruit child soldiers to fight the population and the Conglese army, the Kyungu Mutanga Mai Mai and Kata-Katanga Mai Mai. These Child Soldiers are taught and prepared by their generals to commit violent atrocities to their public, similar to the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony, and they are often used to take resources forcefully from local villages, but essentially they are a rebel group operating the the province of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like many rebel forces who use Child Soldiers in their violent practices, some children are recruited forcefully, and some children voluntarily enter them in hopes of being educated and fed while staying in the group. The key stakeholders of this issue include the vulnerable children of the DRC, the rebel forces who are searching for new recruits, and Action Against Poverty (ACP), an NGO that is currently working towards fighting the recruitment of child soldiers. Congo's weak Economy is a contributing factor of the recruitment of child soldiers because many families in the DRC are unable to financially fund their families, therefore, some families may willingly give up their children to rebel forces in order to provide fundamental needs such as food, shelter, and education. There are social and cultural implications of this issue because firstly, villages are afraid of having their children kidnapped and recruited by the rebel forces, and secondly, the culture of these child soldiers are based on the violent teachings of their generals. Their beliefs are skewed and they are unable to live a normal way of life because of this. An organization that is currently working to fight this issue is the Action Against Poverty NGO, where they are working to impove the lives of the children in the DRC by providing services to support families in order to lessen their chances of voluntarily becoming child soldiers through educating and providing food for the Conglese population. The bias in this article is obviously geared towards promoting aid towards the chidlren in the DRC and attracting attention towards this issue by supporting the commitments of the Action Against Poverty organization.