UN warns of harrowing plight of children under rebels

• Over 6.7 million people out of which 40 per cent are children, have been displaced across conflict-affected provinces in DRC.
• UN warns children are facing summary executions, sexual violence and abduction and recruitment by the warring factions.
• 45 children, who were cared for in a day transit centre in Goma to have been killed, UN reports.

An increasing number of children in the war ton Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are facing summary executions, sexual violence amid increasing abduction and recruitment by the factions involved in the escalating conflict.

In an update Thursday by the UN Child Rights Committee, children in violence saddled zones of North and South Kivu to the East of the vast country are coming face to face with grave catastrophe.

The UN agency warned that increasingly, armed groups are targeting displaced children and those left helpless in the streets that have been run over by militias.

Recent reports indicate a surge in child recruitment, abductions, sexual violence, and killings as conflict spreads to these new areas, the UN Child Rights Committee added.

In the past month when violence has seen key cities of Bukavu and Goma fall to the Rwanda-backed rebels, sexual violence has become the daily life of some children in these war-torn areas.

“Increasing number of children, the vast majority of whom are girls, are being subjected to sexual violence,” the UN Child Rights Committee said.

UN says 45 children reported dead in DRC

While noting that verifying information from the ground is becoming increasingly difficult due to inaccessibility of the affected zones, the UN Child Rights Committee claimed it had received verified details that 45 of the 120 children in street situations, who were cared for in a day transit centre in Goma to have been killed.

Additionally, 30 girls from the day centre were found in a border neighbourhood after they had managed to hide in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi and are now living on the streets, it added.

With continued takeover of vast areas across eastern DRC by the M23 rebels, the UN agency noted that the militias keep targeting civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals.

“The destruction of healthcare facilities has severely weakened the already overwhelmed medical system, leaving the few operational hospitals struggling to meet the urgent needs of the population, leaving many children without access to emergency medical care,” the Committee stated

Statistics on the humanitarian situation by UNICEF in the DRC show that an estimated 26.4 million people out of which 15.4 million are children, need urgent humanitarian support.

Ongoing offensives in Goma and North Kivu have heightened the risk of grave violations. Over 6.7 million people, which 40 per cent are children, have been displaced across conflict-affected provinces especially in the mineral rich eastern DRC. Many children remain out of school, increasing their vulnerability to recruitment and other violations.

Rwanda blocks Belgian aid

Meanwhile, authorities in Rwanda have announced a stoppage in receiving aid from Belgium, accusing Brussels of criticising Kigali’s involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC.

Belgium has accused Rwanda of undermining the DRC’s territorial integrity by supporting the M23 rebels, who have so far seized critical cities of Goma and Bukavu in quick succession while threatening to march to the country’s capital Kinshasha.

Ruffled by this criticism, on Tuesday, Rwanda announced the suspension of its 2024-2029 bilateral aid agreement with Belgium. Rwanda noted that the European nation was was sabotaging its access to “development finance, including in multilateral institutions”.

In response, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the Belgian government was, “committed to a professional suspension process that preserves the gains of our longstanding cooperation for the benefit of the Rwandan people.”

He added, “We are determined to continue our efforts to raise awareness and mobilize the international community to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in the east of the DRC, based on international law.”

Read also: M23 rebels: We will march all the way to Kinshasa