Large numbers of child soldiers have been released and are now being looked after by Save the Children as thousands of fighters from armed groups integrate into the Congolese army.
In the past week, Save the Children has helped secure the release of 109 child soldiers from armed groups in eastern DR Congo. More children are expected to be set free in the coming days.
The aid agency is now supporting the boys and girls within foster families as aid workers start the search for the children's parents so families can be reunited. Save the Children has also reunited 237 other ex-child soldiers with their families over the past two weeks.
However as this release takes place, the numbers of children abducted to fight has rocketed further north in the country, with over 500 children kidnapped since October last year by Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army.
Gilbert Hascoet, Save the Children's country director in Democratic Republic of Congo, said: "High numbers of children have been found within the militia groups integrating into the Congolese army. It's a huge relief for the boys and girls who have been released, many of whom have been forced to endure horrific conditions and abuse at the hands of militia fighters.
"But these children are just a tiny part of the picture. There are more than a thousand children still trapped by armed groups in DR Congo, and the ongoing clashes and security restrictions make it harder for aid organisations to work towards their release."
"The situation is particularly grave in the north-east of the country, where fighters from the Lord's Resistance Army are indiscriminately kidnapping children to use as sex slaves and to commit atrocities, sometimes against their own families and friends. Tens of thousands of other children across the region, as well as their families, are now living in fear that they too will be taken."
Save the Children is supporting 480,000 people in DR Congo, helping to release and rehabilitate child soldiers, delivering health care and helping children get back to school. The aid agency is warning that without a much stronger diplomatic response to the conflict, and without tackling illicit support for armed groups and the widespread impunity for abuses, the recruitment of children to fight will not stop.
Mr Hascoet continued: "While we can celebrate the release of these children, there is still huge international pressure needed to stop the recruitment of children by both Congolese and Ugandan armed groups operating in DR Congo. Militia leaders must be made to understand the recruitment of children is a war crime for which they can be prosecuted and that they must release any children trapped in their ranks."
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
School children walk past Cambodian soldiers searching for landmines on the outskirts of Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold, in western Cambodia's Battambang province February 13, 2009. A landmine exploded nearby ...
