DR Congo 'awash' with child soldiers

The average age of soldiers in Ituri is 16

Armed groups fighting in the north-eastern Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo all recruit child soldiers and in some cases children form the bulk of their troops, aid workers say.

Ituri is awash with child soldiers

Aid worker

More than half the estimated 15,000 fighters who make up the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) are under 18, some are as young as eight, they say.

But the UPC, which controls the area of Ituri on the border with Uganda, says the children in its ranks are orphans who are used for light manual labour.

Aid workers said that all the other rebel groups, including the one affiliated to the Kinshasa government, and various ethnic militias in Ituri, also use child soldiers.

	:	War survivors
DR Congo's displaced generation

'Orphans'

"Some parents find it a tribal obligation for children to become tribal warriors. There are thousands of children within these tribes who are also armed," says Djuma Baudoin, of the humanitarian organisation SOS.

Lubanga says the children fetch firewood

"And then again, you have forced recruitment in the schools in the region," said another aid worker, who asked not to be named.

But the UPC denies the allegations.

"We do have 10 or 15 children in our ranks for fetching firewood and things like that, but they are not child soldiers, they are orphans," said UPC leader Thomas Lubanga.

"I asked Save the Children to assist us, but little has been done," he says.

Obedient

Ituri is a region of dense forests which make it easy for the various groups with young children in their ranks to hide them.

"It's hard to get any idea of numbers because they stay in the bush," says one observer.

Many groups prefer to have younger soldiers because they are easier to manipulate.

"They have no other interests, they never disobey their commanders," says Mr Baudoin.

Many have witnessed killings before becoming soldiers themselves.

Others too

In December last year, the United Nations published for the first time a list of organisations which it said were recruiting child soldiers.

DR CONGO FORCES USING CHILD SOLDIERS

DR Congo Government

Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC)

Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)

Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)-National

Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)-Kisangani/ML

Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC)

Patrick Masunzu's forces

Lendu militias

Ex-FAR/Interahamwe

Mai-Mai militias

Source: UN

It named groups in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Somalia that were recruiting children as combatants and said the governments in the four African countries were also involved.

There are thought to be around 300,000 children who have been recruited as soldiers fighting in 41different countries.

However, the UN sees this as part of a series of initiatives which, in the longer term, could stop yet more children being exploited as child fighters.