DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo’s Kasai region is the latest deadly hotspot in the vast Central African country that has had violent rebellions for decades. Once again, children are among…
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo’s Kasai region is the latest deadly hotspot in the vast Central African country that has had violent rebellions for decades. Once again, children are among the most vulnerable victims.
Well over 1 million people have fled the fighting that began a year ago when Congo’s military killed the regional tribal leader of the Kamwina Nsapu militia. More than 3,300 people in the region have died, according to estimates by the Catholic church. The United Nations has counted more than 80 mass graves.
Across the once-peaceful region, children are forced to take up weapons, either recruited by militias or to defend their homes. Children make up more than half of the displaced people, said Yvon Edoumou, spokesman for the U. N. humanitarian office in Congo.
“We see families who say they are fleeing because militias were going into their villages, and most of the time we have one mother and two to four young kids, even toddlers and babies in their arms,” Edoumou said. “The men are almost nowhere to be seen. So children are taking a very heavy toll from all this violence.”
Children in the Kasai region are being forced to endure horrific ordeals such as abuse and recruitment into militia groups, the U. N. children’s agency says, with more than 850,000 left without basic services.
One 12-year-old told the agency he escaped from a militia group where he was a combatant. Now in a U. N.-backed safe house, he is trying to deal with the trauma.
“I was given things to swallow. Afterwards, they took a machete and hit me three times on the chest. Next they gave me plastic bags to swallow, saying that if I concentrate on something, I can become it,” he said.
