Millions of children in Kongo and Somalia are suffering under war and expulsion

World Children’s Day is on 20th September. It is fitting then that the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) drew attention on Wednesday to the dramatic situation of the children in the areas affected by civil war in Congo and Somalia . „Children and women are the ones suffering most under war and expulsion”, reported the GfbV Africa correspondent, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen. In order to protect them the international community must take much more energetic measures to ensure a lasting peace in both countries.

War and flight are just part of everyday life for millions of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo four years after the signing of a peace treaty. Both militia and regular soldiers have failed to give the children any protection and have disregarded their human rights.

In attacks on villages children have been killed and families torn apart. Tens of thousands of children are now refugees and left completely to themselves. Children make up most of the 650,000 refugees, who have had to flee since the outbreak of new fighting in June 2007 in the provinces of North and South Kivu . Humanitarian aid hardly ever reaches them since the aid organisations have not been able to get through to the displaced persons in the light of the catastrophic security situation.

In eastern Congo with the renewed outbreak of fighting there is a serious threat of a new wave of the forced recruiting of children. Both the Congolese army and the militia are accused of using child soldiers. The UN children’s aid agency UNICEF reports that since the beginning of August 2007 at least 54 children have been dragged off by the militia. In North Kivu about 8,500 children are in particular danger of being pressed in as soldiers. For this reason many families have already left their villages.

In Somalia too children are increasingly finding themselves between the fronts of the two sides in the civil war. Every week children are being killed by rocket attacks or shooting incidents. More than 1000 children have already suffered a violent death since January 2007. Some 400,000 people have been expelled.

In Sudan and the centre of Somalia more than 80,000 children are under-nourished and more than 13,000 face starvation. However the work of the humanitarian helpers in Somalia is become more difficult all the time as the conflict parties refuse to allow access to the crisis areas and disregard the protection of the civilian population.