UN deal secures release of child soldiers held by Central African Republic militias
May 21, 2015 · By Sam Jones Friday 15 May 2015 14.13 BST
Emotional scenes as 357 children who fought in two-year sectarian conflict or were forced to work as sex slaves are liberated in Bambari following peace deal
Children who served as soldiers in Central African Republic’s sectarian conflict attend a release ceremony in Bambari. They were freed under a peace agreement secured by the UN. Photograph: Le Du/Unicef
More than 350 children have been released by armed groups in Central African Republic (CAR) under a UN-brokered deal to free thousands of young people who have been forced to work as soldiers, sex slaves and servants during the country’s sectarian conflict.
On Thursday, 357 children aged between eight and 18 – including more than a dozen girls – were released in three separate ceremonies near the town of Bambari, about 200km north of the capital, Bangui.
Violence erupted in CAR in March 2013 when the mainly Muslim rebels of the Seleka alliance seized Bangui and installed the country’s first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia.
The Seleka went on to terrorise the majority Christian population, killing men, women and children until they were forced from power five months ago. Predominantly Christian forces known as the anti-balaka (anti-machete) militia retaliated by slaughtering thousands of Muslims and forcing hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
Two of the ceremonies involved the release of children from the anti-balaka, while the third was for those who had been among the ranks of the Seleka.
The move came a week after the UN children’s agency, Unicef, helped to agree a deal between the leaders of CAR’s 10 armed groups to secure the release of the 6,000 to 10,000 children thought to be connected with the different factions.
“I want to thank the people who brought us here. We don’t want to stay in the army where life is hard,” a 16-year-old girl who had fought alongside the Seleka told Reuters.
The girl, who asked not to be named, said she had joined the militia group voluntarily three years ago and had fought in Bangui street battles.
Donaig Le Du, Unicef’s head of communication in CAR, said she hoped Thursday’s ceremonies would soon be followed by many more.
“Seeing the kids dressed in the civilian clothes they’d been given hours before was quite emotional,” she said.
“The kids have gone through a lot. They’ve seen things that no child should see and some of them have probably done things that no kid should ever have to do. Some of the little ones were smiling, but I think that was because there was a lot going on around them. For some of them, I would figure that they were thinking, ‘What is my future going to be now?’”
After receiving medical screenings, the children were given the chance to talk to social workers. Those with relatives in the area will be reunited with their families if it is safe enough to do so, while others will be placed with foster-caregivers until their families can be found.
Le Du stressed that the release was just the beginning of the children’s return to their homes and former lives.
“[Even] when the family tracing is done, you don’t just drop the kid back in the community,” she said.
“You need to prepare ahead of that because some of them will not be welcome and there will be community mediation to be done. It takes several months from the day the child is identified until the day the child can be returned back to normal life.”
Unicef, which uses local NGOs to reintegrate children in CAR, has warned that the process of releasing and returning them to their communities will place additional demands on the already limited funding available to respond to the humanitarian emergency in the country. As of 30 April, the agency had received $17m (£10.9m) of the $73.9m it needs to carry out its operations this year.
