At least 2,420 children suffer from violations such as killing, maiming, abductions, and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Save the Children has reported.
Development Diaries reports that the central African country had the highest number of grave violations against children in armed conflict in the world in 2022.
Also, the DRC had the highest number of child abductions globally, with 730 children forcibly taken from their homes last year.
Most of these children were abducted for recruitment and used by armed groups, but some were used for the purposes of extortion, sexual violence, and torture.
Despite the scale of need, DRC’s humanitarian crisis is extremely underfunded, with just 28 percent of its humanitarian plan financed. This urgent funding gap could leave children exposed to the immediate and lasting impacts of conflict, recruitment, exploitation and violence.
‘Many Children growing up in the DRC are living through the toughest experiences imaginable. Every day children are experiencing harrowing violations against their rights’, Save the Children Country Director, Greg Ramm, said in a statement.
‘They have watched their homes and schools be destroyed. Armed groups force their friends and family members into armed recruitment, and many have survived sexual and gender-based violence, abuse and abductions.
‘Despite the extent of the crisis, the humanitarian response is severely underfunded, resulting in a shortage of food, healthcare and shelter, children missing out on education and insufficient psychosocial care for survivors of abuse.
‘The situation has also been exacerbated by disease outbreaks and natural disasters, while the country is grappling with extreme poverty and huge numbers of families displaced by conflict’.
More than 6.2 million people in the DRC have been displaced, and families face violence, hunger and disease every day.
Development Diaries calls on all parties to the conflict to end the unlawful recruitment and use of children for fighting.
We also call on President Felix Tshisekedi-led government to ensure all perpetrators of these violations against children are thoroughly investigated and brought to justice.
Photo source: Save the Children
