KINSHASA (Reuters) - Humanitarian agencies in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo have secured the release of more than 200 child soldiers from pro-government militia, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Friday.
t said the release of the 232 children, whose average age was 14, followed a campaign against the recruitment and use of children by armed groups operating in Congo's east, where conflict has driven thousands of civilians from their homes.
The children were freed from the ranks of local Mai Mai militia through the efforts of UNICEF and Save the Children working in collaboration with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).
"The majority of the 232 children are currently in transitory care facilities and awaiting family reunification, UNICEF said in a statement from Congo's eastern North Kivu province, posted on the agency's Web site.
Those freed included 182 children from the Mai Mai Baleine Brigade in Beni in North Kivu last week, it added.
UNICEF's Pernille Ironside told Reuters the agency was able to take charge of the 182 when the Mai Mai brigade came out of the bush to join a program integrating its fighters into the national army. The release of the rest of the children was negotiated directly with other militia units, she said.
While it welcomed the release, UNICEF said hundreds of children remained with armed groups and forces in the Congo, where national elections last year have failed to halt intertwined conflicts in the east of the country
"UNICEF is calling on all armed groups and forces to release these children immediately into the care of child protection agencies," the U.N. agency said.
North Kivu province has experienced successive outbreaks of fighting in recent months involving the Congolese army, the forces of a renegade Tutsi general, Rwandan Hutu rebels and Mai Mai militiamen who say they work with the government army.
The army last month threatened to act against a Mai Mai group in North Kivu, saying it was hindering its operations.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who won elections in the vast, former Belgian colony last year, has vowed to pacify the violent east, where rebel groups and militias are still killing and looting after the end of the country's 1998-2003 war.
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