First group of former child soldiers repatriated

The first 34 of a total 159 demobilised child soldiers were flown home on Wednesday from Uganda to Bunia in the Ituri district of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to be reunited with their families, UNICEF announced on Thursday. The children have been staying in a World Vision-Uganda transit centre in Kiryandongo, 220 km north of the capital Kampala, under the supervision of UNICEF-Uganda since February this year when the government of Uganda handed them over.

During the past five months, UNICEF and its partners have been providing the children with schooling, psycho-social counseling and vocational training while simultaneously tracing their families and preparing for their return home. Prior to this, the children had been undergoing political and military training since August 2000 in the Kyankwanzi National Political Education School. The 34 children, aged nine to 12, and including two girls, were flown on a civilian plane chartered by the International Organisation for Migration.

The children are being repatriated in cooperation with the governments of the DRC, Uganda, and the Ugandan-backed Front pour la liberation du Congo (FLC) rebel movement. All parties have pledged to prevent future recruitment of children into any armed force. UNICEF-DRC and a local partner organisation, SOS Grands Lacs, have put measures in place to closely monitor the reception of the initial group before transporting more of the children.