Thursday, November 13, 2008
Congolese children forced to fight
This article is from the BBC News and it brings up an issue that I was not really aware of. Children in the Congo are being kidnapped and forced to fight with the rebel groups. This has been a pretty common practice in the past but now soldiers are going after whole schools and larger groups of children. A UK charity is trying to help the situation by providing counseling for the children and their families when they return. What more do you think can be done to save the lives of these children? Why should they have to fight in a war that they have nothing to do with?
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4 comments:
This also makes me ask, why do little children have to fight in a war at all? They are being forced to kill without even understanding the concept of death in the first place. This situation is just so disturbing to me especially now that the rebels are going after schools. Is there any place in the Congo where children are safe? I cannot think of anything else that these UK charities until the fighting stops.
There are currently 20,000 UN troops in the Congo, in an effort to keep the peace and ensure the safety of the Congolese. Perhaps some of those troops could act as protection at schools, to prevent these kidnappings. Obviously this is not a solution to the problem, but a means to prevent the situation from worsening.
I think its great that the UK charities are providing counseling to children and their families after the fact but I think that they could be doing something to prevent it in the first place. I agree with Alissa's comment. This is such a bad situation they should be doing what they can to both prevent it and help afterwards.
I think that it's hard as parents to fight back to the rebel groups especially if the rebels are carrying weapons. I'm sure the situation is similar to the movie in Blood Diamond.
I think the U.S. should step in and intervene and put the rebels in their place. These kids are so innocent and pure and should not be corrupted in the first place. It's such a sad story.
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