Free all children, UNITA urged

Sixty Angolan children abducted by UNITA forces earlier this month were freed on Friday, but an unknown number of juveniles remain captives within the rebel movement’s ranks, humanitarian officials told IRIN.
The children, along with two adults, were released at Camabatela in the northern province of Kwanza Norte.
They had been abducted from an orphanage more than 300 km south run by the development agency ADPP, during an attack on the town of Caxito on 5 May.

ADPP director Rikke Viholm told IRIN the children were “extremely happy” to be reunited with friends and colleagues from the orphanage and, as part of the healing process, had “much to talk about”. “Physically, they seem to be in good shape and managed to put up with the 21 days of walking,” she added.

In a campaign of protest, the abductions were roundly condemned both locally - by the church and civic organisations - and by rights groups internationally. Even UNITA, in a statement on Friday announcing the release, appeared to acknowledge that holding the children had been a mistake.

But the Caxito children were in a sense fortunate, according to Jose Mendonca of UNICEF. “They were identified and known, we had their pictures”, he told IRIN. By contrast, the thousands of children in the countryside press ganged to serve as porters or soldiers in Angola’s civil war remain anonymous. The Caxito children reported that during the three weeks they spent being marched to their eventual freedom, they met other children held by UNITA who remain in the bush.

ADPP still has 16 children missing after a rebel raid on its orphanage outside the central highlands city of Huambo in July last year. A total of 21 children were seized in the attack, during which a 16-year-old boy was killed and four children between 14-16 years old were injured. One of the children made it back home to the orphanage last week, Viholm said. He had been on a military mission around Huambo when he managed to escape.

“There’s only one way to react and that’s to continue condemning these abductions. If UNITA is against abductions then please set all the children free,” she urged. “We know many more children are still out there.”