UN experts urge immediate action to protect children against trafficking for recruitment and use in hostilities in DRC

UN human rights experts called for urgent measures to address grave violations against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid escalating hostilities in North and South Kivu provinces.

“The recent surge in violence has led to indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations, massacres, and conflict-related sexual violence, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law,” the experts said.

Reports from health facilities indicate a rise in rape cases, with children accounting for 30 per cent of those treated. Humanitarian agencies have identified more than 1,100 unaccompanied and separated children in North and South Kivu, while attacks on hospitals, humanitarian facilities, and civilian infrastructure have further compounded the crisis. Schools have also been attacked, occupied by armed groups, or used as shelters for displaced populations.

“As offensives intensify, more than 700,000 people, 41 per cent of whom are school-aged children, have been displaced and the number of casualties, including among children, is mounting at an alarming rate. A majority of cases remain unreported, and this may only be a tip of the iceberg,” they warned.

Recruitment and use of children in armed conflict remain an urgent concern and grave violation of children’s rights in the DRC and is increasing as the conflict worsens, exposing children to devastating conditions, including injury, abduction, death, and sexual violence.

“We are particularly concerned by reports of children disappearing, being abducted or trafficked and recruited for use in combat by all parties to the conflict. Child-sensitive measures must be immediately implemented to protect children from these violations,” the experts said. “These include strengthening early warning and child protection risk alert systems, developing robust age verification methods to prevent child recruitment, and authorising access for child protection agencies to visit military sites to verify that no children have been unlawfully recruited.”

They further emphasized the need to demobilize recruited children and to provide full assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and safe reintegration.

“We call on all parties to the conflict, including those directly engaged in hostilities and persons in command roles in armed groups, to halt these atrocities and to uphold their legal obligations to protect civilians, particularly children,” the experts said.