Daily Times: UNITED NATIONS: As many as 6,000 children in Central African Republic have been recruited by armed groups and forced to commit atrocities along religious lines in a conflict that is at high risk of spiraling into genocide, UN envoys said on Wednesday.
More than half the landlocked state’s 4.6 million people need assistance and nearly one million have fled their homes after mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in a March coup d’etat that ousted former President Francois Bozize.
Christian self-defense groups known as “anti-balaka” (anti-machete) have taken up arms against them, and the United Nations estimates that retaliatory violence has claimed thousands of lives.
“The impact of the conflict on children has been dramatic with unprecedented levels of brutality,” the UN envoy for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, told the UN Security Council. “Children have been directly attacked, maimed, killed and beheaded.”
She said recent estimates showed that as many as 6,000 children could be associated with armed groups. “They have been manipulated by both sides and divided along religious lines,” Zerrougui said.
Categories: Africa