Africa 24 Media Photography

In the war-torn country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, children bear the brunt of constant conflict, disease and death, not only as victims; they are also forced participants in atrocities and egregious crimes that can and does inflict lifelong physical and psychological harm to them. The recruitment of child soldiers in the DRC has been on the increase and the central African nation is reported to have one of the world's largest numbers of child soldiers.

The ruthless exploitation of children by the leaders of armed forces to further their own material and political ends stands out as one of the most grotesque human rights abuses of the country’s endless civil strife. When the children are not in the bushes fighting and receiving orders to kill or be killed, then they are on the streets, looking desperate, bedraggled, in tattered clothes and with hungry bellies. When they are not in the mining fields or being absorbed into forced child labour, then they are desperately looking for food left-overs in a dumpsite in major towns. Congolese children continue to suffer as a result of neglect and their nutritional status has not improved since the beginning of conflict. Whether on the streets or in the bushes where they are forced to fight apparent enemies, they continue to meet diseases and death as the international community seems too withdrawn from getting involved. There’s nothing like child rights, while girls become mothers at tender age as a result of rape. One of the DRC’s most dreaded warlords, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo became the first ever warlord to be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 26 January 2009. He is accused for conscripting, enlisting and using child soldiers into the military wing of his group and then using them to participate in hostilities between September 2002 and August 2003. Lubanga, the founder and leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots in the Ituri region of the eastern DRC entered a plea of not guilty. The case of Mr. Lubanga represents not only the debut proceedings of the ICC but also the first trial in history of international law to see the active participation of victims in the proceedings, among which will number former child combatants. There may be as many as 3,000 Congolese children fighting or living with armed forces or militia groups; an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of them are girls, children protection organizations estimate. Children are forced into service, and many are left with no choice but to join the militias, which may offer some protection and provisions, something that the undernourished country may not be able to offer.

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