According to Amnesty International there are as many as 11,000 Congolese child soldiers still missingGOMA, Congo (Reuters) -- Children in Congo are still being recruited by armed groups and authorities are not doing enough to stop ex-child soldiers being sucked back into a life of violence and abuse, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
The rights group said in a report at least 11,000 children in Democratic Republic of Congo were still in the hands of rebel or militia gangs or unaccounted for three years after the end of a war in which they were captured and forced to fight.
This was in spite of a program launched by Congo's government two years ago to release child soldiers and reintegrate them into civilian life in the vast, former Belgian colony, Amnesty said.
"As long as the government and the international community continue to fail to meet the needs of released children, these children are at risk of being quickly redrawn into armed forces or armed groups -- or of being abandoned to an impoverished and forlorn existence," said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty's Africa program.
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