Some of the children were reported to have been picked up from their communities and taken to the bushes to be trained to handle weapons against their will
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, March 14, 2025/APO Group/ --
More than 400 children in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were recruited by armed actors in January and February this year, with some as young as 14 years and some reported picked up from schools and the streets and put at immediate risk of violence, said Save the Children.
Save the Children’s local partners working on child protection in North and South Kivu documented more than 400 cases of children newly associated with armed groups between January and February 2025, when violence escalated in the eastern region of the country. Some of the children were reported to have been picked up from their communities and taken to the bushes to be trained to handle weapons against their will.
Save the Children programmes provide support to children who have been released from armed groups. In 2024, the organisation assisted at least 220 children formerly associated with armed groups in Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu. These children receive both psychosocial and economic support to help them reintegrate into their communities. Depending on their age, some children return to school, while others receive vocational training in practical skills such as tailoring, carpentry, or mechanics, equipping them with the tools to build sustainable livelihoods.
The recruitment, use, and abduction of children in armed conflict is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime, said Save the Children. These practices expose them to extreme violence, and cause severe, long-term physical and psychological harm.
Children are often targeted for recruitment because they are cheap, easier to control and manipulate, and because they look to adults to protect them. Usually unpaid, they are used to do tasks adults do not want to do and may also be coerced into carrying out acts of violence, or have violence perpetrated onto them – for example, as girls recruited to be ‘wives’ of soldiers.
Save the Children has observed that the number of grave violations against children in the eastern DRC has increased. UNICEF has reported that grave violations have tripled since the latest escalation of violence which began on 24 January 2025 [1]. These violations include recruitment and use of children in armed groups, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and abduction.
Junior*, 17, who has been supported by Save the Children said:
“I was taken by force by a group of armed men when we were going to school with my friends, so they took us into the bush to train us to handle weapons to defend the country. We were very closely watched so that no one could leave the training area”
Greg Ramm, Save the Children’s Country Director in DRC, said:
"The situation is unacceptable, and urgent action is needed to protect the children of the DRC. We call on all parties to the conflict to take immediate measures to prevent and end these grave violations. The international community must ensure that independent human rights monitors have unrestricted access to affected areas to conduct rigorous and child-sensitive investigations and perpetrators of such acts must be held into account”.
The DRC has made progress in recent years in addressing the issue of child recruitment, including the adoption of an Action Plan in 2012 and the establishment of a Joint Technical Working Group to coordinate implementation. However, much work remains to be done to ensure the protection of children from all forms of violence.
"We urge the government of the DRC, the international community, and all stakeholders to work together to address the root causes of these violations and to ensure that children are protected from harm," said Christian Selemani*, the child protection partner.
Save the Children started working in eastern DRC in 1994, and is currently working with 13 local partners, as well as international partners and government authorities, to deliver critical health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection and education support to children and their families.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Save the Children.
These pirates should free these innocent fellow Somalis. They were in that area to help the WFP get the needed food to that region but not to be taken hostage and treated like foreigners. If the pirates start these kinds of land crimes they’ll be the ones who will loose everything. Including, entering/staying in Somaliland in order to go to Ethiopia.
Who ever was in charge of the escort and the safety of these drivers should be help responsible for this case.
They went there to help the starving people of Somalia, after this I reckon we should get our army as well as the Ethiopians to accompany those food aid trucks and should travel via Ethiopia and enter Galkacayo from there.
I think Puntland is behind the pirates because they upset the WFP didnt use their tiny thing they call port in Bosaaso which only handles macawis (somali garments) and fishing cargo.
We need to travel via Ethiopia, and the WFP needs to pay Somaliland and Ethiopian security to work together.
We will not free those pirates and those trucks will be rescued, watch.
the world is watching closely how the puntland adminstration deals with these terrorist pirates and set free the innocent somaliland civilians abducted in puntland.
It's good that now the world sees that Somaliland and Somalia are two different places. Somaliland is the peaceful place where this aid trucks delivered the food from to Somalia where all the instability is, WFP could not even use their ports, they had to make that long journey.
Now remember the people of Somalia are as hostile as they are to any foreigner as they are to Somalilanders, so WFP next time give them arms or our port is happy to serve Ethiopia where at least our trucks do not get kidnapped.
This is why its better to do business with Ethiopia than Somalia. See what happens?
This is way some of us call this part of Somalia, a Mafialand, There is no authority to speak of if there is one then how comes tugs can stop an innocent hardworking individual and demand for payback? where is the so called Puntland authorities? are they in the pockets of these pirates?
So now pirates are operating in the land as well ?
There you go. Is there ever any doubt that Puntland is totally overrun by pirates? At least they had some decency to wait until the food got the starving people in Somalia. It is now up to the "administration" in Puntland to sort this out. For a long time, Somaliland has been trying to show the difference between Somaliland and Somalia. It is now crystal clear. Somaliland arrests, tries and sentences pirates, Somalia and Puntland act as a haven for such pirates, both on sea and now on land.
I would like to see Garowe Online or Mareeg.com spin this!
So whats the Somaliland government doing to free the hostages? They should be dealt with harshly no mercy for the pirates
My good friends,
we are all Somalis, like everyone is English.
Ooh! yes we all Frech! But each one of us has his own territory
Etc…Begium, France, Switzerland etc……
Do not be and ever cheap and fooled by the Somali.
Djibouti is alive tkx to heavens.
Rule yr home and yr domain !!!!
Tkx
Yace
it is unfortunate if the pirates started operating in puntland,and starting capturing the trucks for somaliland civilians, which are delivering food aid to Galka’ayo area.
i think it is very shamefull for puntland Goverment,
Somaliland needs to invade Puntland and their pirates if they do not release these men and their trucks as soon as possible. We will continue to arrest Puntland thugs and put them behind bars.
They are furious because Somaliland has law, they have port, and the international agencies such as WFP want to deal with Somaliland because of its peace, law and facilities.
You are hungry pirates and no one is going to deal with you, we will come to Bosaso and Garowe like we chased you from Sool and arrest you all.
I think Putland and Somaliland are what they are. They are the same old boys of SSDF and SNM who helped destroy Somalia and Somalism. Now you guys cannot make a deal to reunite and work a thing or two together. So you guys can unite to destroy but you cannot even make a simple deal. Shame on you. You fooled the other Somalis. Now you are claiming you are not even Somalis as I can see from your comments you are French and Italians trapped in Africa. Tell me that. Heheheheheh! Those are the people the revolution has to deal with.