© SEBASTIEN KITSA MUSAYI / AFP
One of the joint operations between the Ugandan and Congolese armies in Virunga National Park in the DRC, December 14, 2021.
The United Nations mission notes an intensification of attacks by armed groups once morest IDP camps or sites, reprisals by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on civilians, but also the recruitment of children into the ranks of the attackers. A diagnosis far from the narrative of the authorities.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
The security situation is not improving. It has even deteriorated in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. This is what Major General Benoit Chavanat, deputy commander of the Monusco Forces, believes.
« If we take from north to south, in a somewhat caricatural way, we have Codeco in the north, which have evolved a little in their objectives and which, as you know, have been attacking the camps for the displaced for a few weeks. You obviously have the ADF who are vigorously fought by the Ugandan armies in connection with the FARDC and who continue to commit atrocities here and there. You have the M23, of which we can feel some signs of renewed activity, particularly once morest the FARDC directly, but indirectly on civilians. And you have further south, of course, the Mai-Mai who are attacking communities, you know, on the Hauts-Plateaux “, enumerates General Benoit Chavanat.
Concerns over the resurgence of child soldiers
Another practice of these armed groups is, among other things, to use child soldiers to increase their numbers. ” A situation that we have known for a long time, but which tends to persist. I’ll just give you an example in Beni, young ADF executives aged 15 with their guns were apprehended by the FARDC in Kamango “, continues the Deputy Commander of the Monusco Forces.
Unicef is concerned. Since 2017, more than 17,000 children have been released from armed groups, but this is only the tip of the iceberg, according to Edouard Beigbeder, head of UNICEF in the DRC. The Mai-Mai, Codeco and ADF groups are groups that use a brigade of children until the children either escape, are released, or are let go. ».
In Ituri, for example, according to this official, the influx of displaced people facilitates the enrollment of children.
►Also read: In the DRC, MSF suspends part of its activities in Ituri due to insecurity