GENEVA (AFP) — Children have been forcibly recruited into armed groups in rebel-held areas of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN children's fund said on Tuesday.
UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau told journalists the organisation had received reports that 37 children had been forcibly recruited into Mai Mai militia in camps near Rutshuru, Nord-Kivu, north of the regional capital Goma.
The Mai Mai are community-based militia headed by warlords and tribal elders to protect their territory from Rwandan intruders.
Children are extremely vulnerable to forced recruitment in the conflict-riven Nord-Kivu province.
Rights group Amnesty International said in September that freed child soldiers were being re-recruited for their valuable fighting experience as the conflict between rebel and government forces intensified.
As many as half of the former child soldiers reunited with their families in Nord-Kivu through a national demobilisation programme have since been re-recruited, Amnesty said.
"It is precisely their previous experience with armed groups that makes them valuable recruits and puts these children at greater risk," said Andrew Philip, Amnesty's DR Congo expert.
"The more they know, the more they are at risk of re-recruitment. In this case, experience can be deadly."
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