Congo fails to stop use of child soldiers

Congo has failed to stop the use of child soldiers in its army – adding forces from former warlords into the regular corps without weeding out underage fighters, an international human rights group said today.

The Central African country has been working to combine forces from a number of rebel groups into the regular army as the newly-elected government struggles to gain control of the sprawling state the size of Western Europe after years of fighting and neglect.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said 300 to 500 children, some as young as 13, are serving in the combined army brigades in Congo’s remote North Kivu province.

The group said the figures came from local and international child protection workers, but did not provide the names of the groups.

Government officials said they were looking into the charges. Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Congo, said the United Nations had previously identified 267 child combatants in North Kivu, 37 of whom had been demobilised as of last week.