Photo: Anonymous child soldiers are interviewed by Refugees International
06/22/2005

The conflict in the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is characterized by large numbers of child combatants. Approximately 6,200 of the estimated 15,000 combatants are children. Humanitarian agencies have supported the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program and provided services to these children until their families could be traced and reunited with them. However, the reintegration phase of this program has not been fully implemented. With instability still plaguing the Ituri region, humanitarian agencies are reluctant to work there and much needed funds to start reintegration projects to keep former combatants from returning to arms have been delayed.

Muteyi* is a fifteen-year-old boy who served in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in northern Ituri. He left the forces and joined the demobilization process in March 2005. “I have been here in this transit camp for one month and four days,” he told Refugees International. “I want to see my family again. I heard a while ago that my parents were driven from our village by fighting, but someone said they had been seen recently in another town in Ituri. I have not seen my parents since I joined the militia when I was 12. I joined the UPC militia with two of my friends when they were near my village. We decided to become soldiers. Now, I only dream of peace. I want to become a mechanic, like my father. I enjoyed watching him working when I was at home.”

Deo is sixteen and was at the transit shelter for demobilized boy soldiers in Bunia for only two and a half weeks when Refugees International interviewed him. “I wanted to help my family so I joined the UPC. We had been chased from our community and displaced so many times. In my village, I attended sixth form classes in the local primary school. I also want to study auto mechanics and learn how to drive. I want to be a driver for hire. If my village doesn’t have any cars or trucks when I go back, I will travel to find work, as long as there is peace in Ituri. I heard that my parents are in Igabera. My father is an electrician; I hope that the staff searching for my father can find him.”

During their three years in the militia, Muteyi and Deo rotated cooking duties with other child soldiers. Sometimes they lived in village houses, but often they had to build bush huts for shelter. They moved often - “too often” they both say. Both boys became ill while traveling. Muteyi says that one time his chest ached so badly his commander sent him to a clinic. Deo came down with malaria, but he recovered because his commander let him go to any dispensary and get the medicine he needed. For fun both boys enjoy playing football and bicycle riding. They learned to ride in the militia. They didn’t have their own bikes in the UPC. “We borrowed them from civilians.”

At the end of our chat, the boys run for the door to join the volleyball game the other child soldiers are playing in the courtyard. Muteyi, stopped half way out, turned and asked, “Can you promise me that I can finish school when I return home?”

Sarah Martin, Andrea Lari and Sandra Tully (pictured here) visited the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in April.

* Names have been changed to protect the children's identities.