In Congo, former child soldiers get a window on a better future

Someone told Mahinda that he is 16 years old. But his skinny frame and narrow shoulders suggest he could be at least three years younger. He doesn't look strong enough to hold a machine gun – yet that is what he has been doing for the past three years.

Children drawn into the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the peculiarly awful aspects of the conflict. While the war officially ended in 2003, that has not meant an end to fighting in the east. The death toll, estimated at 3.9 million so far, continues to rise by the day. Mahinda (children's names have been changed to protect their identity) is one of some 30,000 children used as soldiers in Congo, one-tenth of all child soldiers worldwide, according to UNICEF.

But the current election period in Congo has meant a period of relative calm in the east, with militia groups waiting for the outcome of a second-round presidential run-off in late October. A successful democratic process could usher in peace – and give aid workers a chance to help soldier children adjust to a more normal existence by exposing them to a different future.

"Peace is the key," says Aliou Maiga, child protection officer at Save the Children. "The children are coming in small numbers at the moment. There are a lot of kids in the militias, there is still fighting, and we can even see that there is still recruitment."

Since UNICEF began coordinating the rehabilitation programs in 2002, the organization has dealt with more than 17,000 child soldiers who have been released by the numerous militia groups across eastern Congo. In the eastern Ituri region, more than 4,000 children escaped the clutches of militias in the past three months alone. The real number could be higher, as more are thought to have "self-demobilized" by walking home.

Abused and traumatized by years of fighting, the children struggle to rejoin Congo's damaged society. Continuing insecurity means their options are severely limited, making children prone to rerecruitment: When Mahinda was stopped on the road and abducted by soldiers, it was the start of his second stint as a soldier – he had already escaped another rebel group after fighting with them for a year.

Fifteen-year-old Bonhomme fought with the Mai Mai, a kind of gun-toting community watch group mobilized across eastern Congo to defend against the invasion by Rwanda in 1998. "They gave me a gun and nothing else," he says. "Sometimes, we would not eat for a week and just smoked cigarettes."

Despite experiencing the horrors of war firsthand, he says the Army is the only future for him. "I was really disappointed not to join the Army. They said I was too young," he says. "But when I am 18, I will join so that I get a salary, because when I return to my family there will be nothing. If there was anything else, I would not join."

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