DR Congo: Rogue Leaders, Rebels Forcibly Recruit Youth | Human Rights Watch

DR Congo: Rogue Leaders, Rebels Forcibly Recruit Youth

December 20, 2010

Armed groups in eastern Congo are pulling youth from schools, homes, and fields and forcing them to fight. The Congolese government should urgently stop this recruitment and prosecute those responsible.Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher(Goma) – Rogue Congolese army officers and armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are forcibly recruiting and training for combat hundreds of young men and boys in new efforts to expand their ranks, Human Rights Watch said today. The wave of military recruitment, which began around September 2010, signals a possible collapse of eastern Congo’s peace process.

via DR Congo: Rogue Leaders, Rebels Forcibly Recruit Youth | Human Rights Watch.

Article Link: Call to Action:The Child Soldier Crisis – DISCOVER THE JOURNEY | SPEAK UP. ENSURE JUSTICE.

Child Soldiers

There are more than ever.

And the urgency for intervention, action, RE-action to this growing and unending phenomenon demands our world’s response.

While in Congo, finishing production on our documentary following the lives of two child soldiers, I was appalled to discover that for children like them, there is really nothing for them if they are able to leave a life of war.

There are large institutions offering institutional care, but there is not specialized, individualized, long-term rehabilitation, much less integration. With the billions of dollars of aid pouring into the country and one of the largest UN missions in the world, how can the crisis of child soldiers have gone so blatantly unaddressed?

These children, right now, leaving the armed groups, will form the future generation of Congo’s contributors to civil society. It is essential that they are targeted now, and given options besides going back to war.

via The Child Soldier Crisis – DISCOVER THE JOURNEY | SPEAK UP. ENSURE JUSTICE..

Hodge Podge of Articles on DRC

Here are some articles on various subjects concerning the DRC from a variety of sources.

Repeating the cycle: Congolese children face new draft

Goma – Saddiqi Fundi stands in a central Goma garage surveying the damage to a large truck, its frame severely damaged from driving on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s rough roads.

Fundi, 21, is an apprentice welder at the Garage Buyora, operated by Puis-Casi Kasereka Lwanzo, a Congolese businessman who trains demobilized soldiers.

As a 14 year-old, Fundi was abducted from his town near Masisi, 50 kilometres west of Goma, and enlisted into the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), a rebel army backed by Rwanda.

A war with many fronts: Congo war enters new phase

Goma – Earlier this week, Commander John Tshibango looked across a deep valley to the front lines of the war 10 kilometres outside Goma in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Heavily-armed soldiers moved in and out of the thick trees on the opposite hillside.

Oxfam fears for Congolese civilians as fresh fighting looms

Nairobi/Goma – International charity Oxfam said Wednesday it was concerned for the safety of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Rwandan troops entered the country to hunt down Hutu militia formed after the 1994 massacre in Rwanda.

Report: Nine Hutu rebels killed in Democratic Republic of Congo

Nairobi/Goma – Nine Hutu rebels have been killed in a joint military drive by Rwandan and Congolese troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reports said Sunday.

Weathering the storm: Congo refugees live day by day

Goma – Rosa Nyanzira sits on a pile of volcanic rock in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, wearing two dresses and a ragged fur coat despite the scorching summer heat.

‘These clothes are all that I have,’ she says. ‘I don’t want to lose them.’

A heavy weight: treating the mental trauma of war displaced

Goma – Before the rebels came, Justine Bengehya and Simwerai Muhanaka lived quietly with their seven children outside the Congolese town of Masisi, 50 kilometres west of the provincial capital Goma.

He was a farm labourer, she stayed home to mind the children.

But that all changed on November 29, when the city of 33,000 was captured by rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda and his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

Congo’s murky mining trade feeling pinch of global pressures

Goma – They are both the bounty and the curse of a war-torn nation: Rich Congolese mineral deposits, observers say, are the seeds of recovery for the humanitarian disaster that has engulfed the nation since 1998.

But many say exploitation of these deposits is also driving the bloody conflict that has left over five million dead and more than a million displaced despite the official end of war in 2003.

Schoolboy reveals horrors of child soldier kidnap by rebels

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo took 15-year-old Patrick as he walked to buy soap for his mother.

Child refugees from Congo fighting snuggle together

Children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents during fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo huddled together yesterday as they rested at the Don Bosco Ngangi centre in Goma.

DR Congo: Inside the green rope

It’s firewood distribution day here in Buhimba Camp. Hundreds of women, most of whom are elderly, have lined up to wait their turn. A green rope goes up along the perimeter of the wood yard where the distribution will take place.

Shift Toward Peace, Hope for Congo

Women Survivors Open Bank Account

The women at Victoria Center have come a long way since I met them almost a year ago. They now have 10 sewing machines, a large, comfortable room where sewing classes are taught, and a dedicated sewing teacher. They are learning to sew well, and soon they’ll be able to sell the garmets they make.

And they have their own checking account. Mecrebu Bank in Bukavu has the reputation of being a solid bank with consistent services, so the women decided to deposit money donated to them in the bank for safekeeping. . . not that they have lots, but things have a way of disappearing, even under the best circumstances.

No holiday

This morning I read the news that Nkunda (the former leader of the CNDP) had been arrested. And then I headed out the door. As I dodged mud puddles, and trash being burned in the streets, it gradually occurred to me that there were no shops open. I looked at my watch, wondered what time they could possibly open, and cursed myself for getting out the door too early. This is probably the only time in my life when that has occurred. And then it struck me that by now, the shops really should be open. The outside vendors were all set up, with shoe displays and peanuts available on every corner, but the doors to every shop remained firmly shut.

Children and Armed Conflict DRC

Here are some articles pertaining to DR Congo at the UN Children and Armed Conflict website. (Most are from 2007 time frame) as well as related resources from other sources.

Developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Visit to Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi

DRC: Child protection must be a priority the for the new Government

DRC: Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict visiting the DRC

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

Children and Armed Conflict Videos

Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict

Innocence of Youth Is Victim of Congo War

WatchList DR Congo Report

The war has taken an enormous toll on children and other civilians. Over 12 percent of children do not reach their first birthday, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In 2001, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) reported that approximately one quarter of all children under age five in Basankusu, Orientale Province, an area that was close to the front line at that time, had died over a 12-month period, while the normal mortality rate over the same time period for the same age group is 3.6 percent. MSF attributes the increased death rate in Basankusu and other parts of DRC mainly to an increase in infectious diseases and malnutrition due to loss of food, assets, basic services and medicine because of war-related violence. According to a local human rights NGO, Project GRAM-Kivu (GRAM), operating in South Kivu, many children in Shabunda and other areas die while hiding in the bush.

Many children who survive are traumatized by acts of vandalism and barbarity perpetuated by armed groups. They witness horrendous scenes in which their own families and friends are killed, sometimes hacked to death in front of them. Many young people have lost years of schooling. They are raised in communities with eroded family and societal structures, in camps for displaced people, on the streets, in active duty with armed groups and in other dangerous situations. A variety of natural disasters, such as the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in Goma in 2002, exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and its impact on children.

Struggling To Survive: Children In Armed Conflict In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo

MONUC Child Protection

DRC – Serious violations of children’s rights with impunity continues

DRC: Child protection must be a priority the for the new Government

Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (pdf file)

Human Rights Watch DRC: Some Recent Articles

Here are some recent links pertaining to issues in the DRC from Human Rights Watch

Letter to African Union Chairman H.E. Jean Ping to Address Key Concerns during the African Union Summit

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a continuing and very serious cause for concern. There has been a temporary lull in violence in the North Kivu region. But reports from the ground that Rwanda’s armed forces have crossed the border raise critical civilian protection concerns. All sides to the conflict, including the CNDP rebels and the Congolese armed forces, have committed serious violations of the laws of war. Meanwhile, the disturbing killings recently carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Orientale province highlight again the inadequacy of international, local and regional efforts to protect civilians.

The African Union can press for international security assistance to DRC to be adequately financed, manned, and focused on civilian protection. Human Rights Watch was one of a number of organizations that called for the time-limited deployment of a European force late last year to bolster the UN’s efforts in North Kivu. Regrettably, these calls were ignored, and civilians in the region remain extremely vulnerable. We also see real difficulties in securing the additional UN peacekeepers that the UN Security Council approved in December 2008.

Human Rights Watch therefore urges the AU to take the following actions:
Ensure that the governments of Rwanda and DRC-and other regional stakeholders-cease supporting abusive proxy groups in the Kivus. The evidence, from UN and other sources, shows that both have actively been supporting armed groups that attack civilians.
Press for urgent international action to strengthen UN forces in the Kivus region and urge countries with effective military capacity to contribute.
Press for a full and independent investigation into violations of human rights and the laws of war committed in the Kivus in 2008 and ensure that all those responsible are held to account. We note that in late 2008 the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into atrocities committed in the Kivus. It has already issued an arrest warrant for a senior member of the CNDP, Bosco Ntaganda. The AU should demand his handover to the ICC.
Press for LRA leaders subject to ICC arrest warrants, and who surrender or are captured, to be handed over for trial.

It is also urgent that the AU help draw international attention to the complexities of the DRC’s problems, and counter the flawed notion that the situation in eastern DRC can be solved merely by eliminating the ethnic Hutu FDLR militia. The region’s problems go much further and wider than one armed group, and include economic dynamics such as illicit resource extraction. The fighting in eastern Congo has been a continuing tragedy of civilian deaths, rapes and the use of child soldiers.  © Copyright 2008, Human Rights Watch

DR Congo: Protect Children From Rape and Recruitment
Security Council Should Act to End Abuses Against Children in Eastern Congo

Human Rights Watch: DRC: ICC’s First Trial Focuses on Child Soldiers

Human Rights Watch has an article: DRC: ICC’s First Trial Focuses on Child Soldiers.

This is very significant as per this quote from the article.

“This first ICC trial makes it clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted at the international level,” said Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “Lubanga’s UPC also slaughtered thousands, and those responsible should be held accountable for these crimes as well.”

Resource: Discover the Journey: DRC

Discover the Journey has a blog and some pages about the situation in the DRC. Much of it has to do with children. The blog entries, videos, and photograghs are very powerful.

Here are links to some of them.

The Update.

No one is untouched. Everyone is at risk, and the ones who suffer the brunt of this unnecessary war in Congo are the women and children. There are thousands of child soldiers in Congo, each rebel faction recruits them and needs them. There are not enough adults left to fight. And so this tragic war is fought by children.

We live in the flicker

Abducted from schools, roads, coerced by poverty or circumstance, even persuaded by patriotism or from the wounded heart of the memory of a murdered family member, these children become fighters.

A kind of peace on earth

“But, Jean, you go to battle and organize battles that kill other children’s fathers.”

“But they are Nkunda’s men. They are enemies,” Jean retorted adamantly.

“They are also fathers. They are also Congolese. And the children are innocent. Stop making more children fatherless.”

Looking at brothers as enemies must be broken in order for peace to emerge. And children must be able to keep their fathers.

Sought After

For the child soldiers in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, God is declaring the same things. He refuses to give up His bride and will chase her until she turns. God is a healer. God is a restorer. God is a lover.

These children, called “murderers,” “thieves,” “rejected,” “abandoned,” “soldier,” “orphan,” and “prostitute,” God is calling,

Whispers

A sad maturity marked her face. Her provocative black, lacy clothing clung loosely to her constantly thinning frame. Her deep sultry voice and swanky gait, as she threw her hips around, reminded me of a little girl playing dress up.

But she wasn’t playing.

Mine

We gathered in an oversized room to discuss an under prioritized crisis. Crisis because the abduction of children into armed groups and if they escape the life of destitution awaiting them, is a crisis nearly unparalleled anywhere in the world. Under prioritized because, frankly, no one cares and very little is being done about it

Urgent Congo Update

DTJ Writer and Photographer on CNN

Commentary: War is stealing Congo’s young

Congo Page Has an excellent video of children in an IDP camp.

These are very powerful stories and photos many on child soldiers.

Congo Watch on LRA in Congo

Congo Watch has a number of articles on the LRA in the DR Congo.

Ugandan army recovered military equipment from LRA bases in Garamba, DRC

UNHCR visits Congolese towns attacked by LRA

In South Sudan since Christmas: LRA killed around 40, mostly in Mundri and Maridi

Peter Eichstaedt’s book on the LRA, First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army

UPDF’s Ankunda says commander of Operation Thunder Lightning is in contact with some LRA commanders

UPDF troops in DRC jungle find LRA bodies floating on rivers and buried in mass graves

According to one LRA abductee, who survived an airstrike, the rebels had advance notice

Kony’s Ugandan LRA is a well-ordered fighting force, whose senior officers have been trained by Sudan, Iran and Iraq

UN official urges combatants in DR Congo to release child soldiers

UN official urges combatants in DR Congo to release child soldiers

13 January 2009 – The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today launched a new appeal for armed groups in the eastern region of the vast war-torn country to release all children remaining in their ranks.

After meeting with a group of 20 children recently removed from the grasp of local militia in North Kivu, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the DRC, Alan Doss, spoke on local UN-backed Radio Okapi calling for the return of all boys and girls fighting in the war zone.

“The recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups is a war crime and a crime against humanity. This literally destroys the future of this country,” said Mr. Doss, who is also the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC.

DR Congo News Roundup

Here are some articles from events this week in the DR Congo.

DR Congo Cholera Outbreak Map

This map shows that included in the area affected by the cholera outbreak are the two main regions affected by the fighting as well, North and South Kivu.

DRC: MSF Works To Stop Spread of Ebola in Western Kasai

The number of people with suspected Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the Mweka district of Western Kasai Province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is now 38, including 12 who have died. This is the second outbreak of its kind in just over a year in Western Kasai; the current outbreak claimed its first life on November 27.

Last week, international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), sent a team of expert medical and non-medical staff to the area. A team of 16 are now working around the clock to contain this deadly epidemic.

MSF in Democratic Republic of Congo

Contains an overview of MSF Medicines Sans Frontieres work in the DRC

Conflict in Eastern DRC

Has the most recent MSF articles on the situation in the Eastern DRC

Cholera Cases Down, But Needs Still High in North Kivu

17 December: There was no major fighting reported in North Kivu this past week, but sporadic skirmishes between armed groups continued to drive civilians out of their homes and into the forests for days or during the nights, where they hoped to avoid being harassed. The overall improved security for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams allowed staff to redeploy to areas where they had been running projects, and carry out evaluations and mobile medical clinics in the surrounding areas. In all MSF projects in North Kivu, cholera cases have been decreasing.

Condition- Critical: Eyewitness: Nyramana, 29 years, Camp Nyanzale. Testimony of a young woman now being treated by MSF

Tumaini, 12 months old, 5.4 kilos

There is he again. Two weeks ago, he was discharged from our feeding centre and today he was readmitted. Once again he is extremely thin, a little, shriveled boy with big eyes. His mother stares at the ground. Her hands hang heavily next to her gaunt body. Defeated.

Women

I’ve seen different ones come by these past few weeks. Old women, young girls, women of my own age. Women from all of the different groups involved in this conflict. Their faces reveal shock, fear and shame. Sometimes they show no emotion at all. It’s also difficult for me to explain how this makes me feel: full of disbelief, powerlessness, incomprehension.
Disbelief because I cannot understand how a person, how a man can do this to a woman. Powerlessness because this is the reality in this world. A reality that keeps hitting me in the face and leaves me speechless in front of this woman. Incomprehension because I will never understand how such an experience affects a woman.

Kalembe

The hallway and grass field in front of the health centre are completely filled with mothers and children. Some already have a card meaning that they are already in our programme. Others have no card and have been brought here in the hope of getting help. Quickly I try to organise things. It is total chaos. The groups are all mixed up and more and more people keep arriving now that our car has been spotted. I suddenly realize that it will be impossible to see all of the children.

Uganda: Ban Denounces ‘Appalling Atrocities’ By Rebels in DR Congo

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned the “appalling atrocities” reportedly committed by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan, and demanded that they respect all rules of international humanitarian law

WFP Operational Update – Eastern Congo

31 December 2008 – In the latest expansion of operations in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner Caritas have completed the first round of emergency food distributions to 18,300 displaced people in and around Dungu in Orientale Province, near the Sudanese and Ugandan borders. The displaced are victims of recent attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

UNHCR Appeals for More UN, Congolese Troops to Protect Civilians

The UN refugee agency is appealing to the Congolese government to send more troops to protect civilians in Orientale Province in the northeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army massacred hundreds of civilians in the area over the Christmas period.

It’s our duty to alleviate suffering

And while the attention is understandably focused on the politics that is at the root of these conflicts, we must not forget the silent victims, especially the women and children, who suffer the most.

We have a humanitarian responsibility to try our best to alleviate and prevent the suffering of those less fortunate than ourselves. When we allow situations to continue that are so horrendous and devastating, especially for children, it diminishes us all. Editorial by Dave Toycen who is president and CEO of World Vision Canada.

Congolese government vows to ‘destroy’ Lord’s Resistance rebels

KINSHASA (AFP) — President Joseph Kabila’s government vowed Wednesday to destroy the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, condemned by the United Nations for a series of atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Alan Doss responds to the CNDP’s allegations against the FARDC and calls on all to keep the peace

Kinshasa, 30 December 2008 — In the CNDP’s communiqué of 24 December 2008 and in a letter addressed by its leader Mr. Laurent Nkunda on 26 December last to Mr. Alan Doss, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the DR Congo, the CNDP protested what they described as the “redeployment of coalition troops” in the zones disengaged by the CNDP, situated in the vicinity of Goma airport.

UN to probe sex abuse allegations against DR Congo staff

KINSHASA (AFP) — The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said Wednesday it has called for an immediate inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in the east of the country.

Rwanda wants to ‘pacify’ eastern DRCongo: minister

GISENYI, Rwanda, 30 December 2008 (AFP)— Rwanda says it wants to “pacify” the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting between government forces and rebels, allegedly backed by Kigali, have raged since August.

“We shall see how we can stabilise and pacify the east of Congo and our Great Lakes sub-region,” Rwandan defence minister Marcellin Gapsinzi told reporters after meeting his Congolese counterpart Charles Mwando Monday in the Rwandan town of Gisenyi.

MONUC demands urgent investigations on allegations of bad conduct

Haut Uélé: MONUC is taking action to protect civilians following the LRA attacks

Following the attacks of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on civilian populations in many territories of Haut Uele district in northeastern DRC since 25 December last, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has declared that it is now taking steps to both protect and assist civilians in the area.

DRCongo rebels accuse UN of lying over troop movements

KINSHASA (AFP) — Rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Friday accused the United Nations of lying about movements of government forces in areas covered by a truce.

They said that the alleged reoccupation of the zones put a question mark on talks between the government and the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), led by renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda, set to resume on January 7.

Congo Claims LRA Rebels Fleeing to Central African Republic

Congolese officials say Ugandan rebels are fleeing toward the Central African Republic in the face of a joint operation by Congo, Uganda and Sudan.

The Democratic Republic of Congo government said Friday that the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has suffered heavy losses during the coalition offensive in the northeastern Orientale province.

WHO confirms 3 Ebola deaths in Congo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Health Organisation on Friday confirmed the Ebola virus had killed three people in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo and said more deaths were being investigated.

Congo in crisis: Manna from heaven

World Relief has delivered food aid to local churches caught in the middle of Congo’s horrendous civil war.

War in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 5 million lives in the past 12 years. Many have died of malnutrition and disease.

Pastors wept with joy as World Relief arrived in Rutshuru with aid kits for 260 of the most vulnerable families in their communities.

UN: Recruitment of Child Soldiers in Congo on Rise

The United Nations Children’s Fund says the recruitment of child soldiers is on the rise in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. UNICEF says the escalation of conflict and upheaval of people from their homes and shelters is leading to further violations of human rights.

Powerful Short Documentary on Child Soldiers

Fox has a very powerful documentary on child soldiers online. The video is fifteen minutes long and combines compelling video, narratives in the words of child soldiers, and commentary from experts from World Vision, Amnesty International and others.

This is one of the best I have ever seen and the video quality and even background music are excellent.

Resources from Food for the Hungry (Global site)

Crisis in Congo This is the same article that was on the CNN site.

Lives of the Displaced features photo essay  of Internally Displaced Peoples, many in the Congo

Africa I am Strong another powerful photo essay includes many photos from the DRC

Paths to Peace in Northern Uganda photo essay

The Struggle of a Child Struggles of children in Africa HIV/AIDS, War, lack of health care etc.

All That Matters photo essay  from Africa with captions of quotes and sayings

Remnants of War photo essay

Forgiving the Oppressor is a powerful testimony of a young woman from Uganda

What if We Could Love

Another Food for the Hungry Video from DR Congo

This video by CNN at the Food for the Hungry Global site again features Lindsey Branham on the situation in the DR Congo and on the relief efforts of Food for the Hungry.

Again she talks about the use of child soldiers as well as the hope and resiliance of the Congolese people.

CNN:Food For the Hungry: DR Congo

CNN has a commentary, video, and slideshow by Lindsey Branham a Food for the Hungry aid worker who is working on the border of the DR Congo and Uganda. She is especially concerned about the recruitment of child soldiers in Eastern DR Congo now.

Commentary: War is Stealing Congo’s Young. Text article. one quote.  “I am convinced: The Congolese are waiting for peace. But they shouldn’t have to wait for assistance.”

Accompanying Video and slideshow.