Han blev børnesoldat som syv-årig, stjal sit første våben, da han var 10, anførte 50 børn og unge, da han var 14 og deltog i ca. 45 kampe, før mareridtet var ovre – aner ikke hvor mange han slog ihjel, men den yngste var en pige på seks, som skød på ham.
KIWANJA (NORTH KIVU), 31 March 2014 (IRIN): When he was seven Dikembe Muamba (ikke hans rigtige navn) became a soldier on the orders of his uncle, a chief in the DR Congo’s North Kivu Province.
“I stole my first gun, when I was 10. It was a flintlock (flintebøsse) By the time I became a captain at 14, I had many guns. I led 50 people, both children and adults. There were about 30 children in the unit. The youngest was 10,” Muamba, now 17, told IRIN.
When IRIN met him at one of the “half-way houses” for former child soldiers in the town of Kiwanja in Rutshuru Territory, Muamba was enjoying his first month of “comfort” in a basic brick and mortar house after a decade of bush living.
“I am still angry with my uncle. Those 10 years feel like a waste of a life,” he said, adding:
“It was very difficult. There was no school. I had only completed two years of schooling [before being forced into child soldiering].”
The “half-way house” – which provides counselling, parental tracing services and tutoring in preparation for a return to school – is run by mother-of-nine Afiya Rehema (ikke hendes rigtige navn).
Her own children are aged 7-19 and in the past nine years she has cared for more than 50 former child soldiers.
“At the moment there are children from Mai-Mai Nyatura, FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] and PARECO [Alliance of Resistant Congolese Patriots] staying here”, she said,noting:
“When they arrive some can be disrespectful, but they soon become like other children. There has never been any violence towards me. Only one ever stole, and then left.”
“I do get some financial support [from local NGO Union pour la paix et la promotion des droits de l’enfant au Congo (UPDECO)]. But I do this as a parent. Maybe one of my kids will be taken by an army. And if that happens I hope another parent will be there to look after my child [if he/she escapes from an armed group]”.
Served as his uncle´s bodyguard
Muamba spent his first few years as his uncle’s bodyguard before being enlisted into PARECO, which emerged in 2007 from a variety of diverse North Kivu communities, including Hunde, Hutu, Nande, Nyanga, and Tembo.
With a barely discernable (synlig) pencil moustache indicating the onset of adulthood, he knows exactly how many battles he has fought and replies without hesitation:
“It was 45, but I don’t know how many people I killed… The youngest was a girl about six. She was shooting at me.”
Muamba was wounded twice during his decade as a child soldier.
“The first battle I fought in was against the FDLR [an anti-Rwandan armed group that had an informal alliance with PARECO]. I fought against ADF-Nalu [Allied Democratic Forces – an Islamist armed group opposed to the neighbouring Ugandan government] in Beni, and M23 [23 March Movement, an alleged Rwandan proxy armed group].
In the end, it was his rank and a chance meeting with members of a local child activist NGO that allowed him to walk away from soldiering.
“As a captain, I was free to go where ever I wanted. By chance in Lubero, I met people from UPDECO. They told me they could give me demobilization papers and then I could leave PARECO forever,” he said.
A girl sergeant’s testimony
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/99869/growing-up-in-war-the-drc-s-child-soldiers
