Uganda & Congo Kinshasa
Agreement on Congolese child soldiers reached in Uganda

afrol.com, 11 February - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) applauded the Government of Uganda for granting full access to a political and military training camp housing child soldiers from Congo Kinshasa (DRC), and for agreeing that all soldiers in the camp under the age of 18 will be handed over to UNICEF for care and protection. 

Liza Barrie, the UNICEF spokesperson, says "this action represents a major breakthrough for ending the recruitment of child soldiers by all sides in the conflict in DRC." The use of child soldiers has been known to be common in Congo Kinshasa, also by the government. The agreement was reached late this week.

On 13 February, representatives from UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Development Programme, Save the Children Alliance and select non-governmental organizations will be given full and unlimited access to the training camp, the UN agency reports. 

These representatives will determine how many of the 693 individuals airlifted several months ago from Bunia in northeastern DRC for military training in Uganda are in fact children. Following the assessment, the Government of Uganda will release the children to UNICEF. 

UNICEF states it "will insure the protection of the children until they can be safely reunited with their families and has already established a task force to cover all aspects of the release and reunification, including assessment, tracing and resettlement."

Child soldiers have been recruited both by the rebels and Congolese government army. Especially late president Laurent Kabila was known to forcefully recruit children on his campaign leading him to power in Kinshasa. He was in fact killed by one of his former child soldiers (now an adult) in Kinshasa three weeks ago.

Uganda has troops deployed in northeastern Congo Kinshasa and supports the rebel groups in the Bunia area, where massacres and serious human rights violations recently have been reported. There are also known to child soldiers in these areas. 

Sources: Based on UNICEF and afrol archives

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