MAPUTO, Mozambique
Mozambique government forces have rescued abducted children who were forcefully recruited by Al-Shabaab jihadist group in the northern province, the United Nations said this week.
The UN Children's Fund
(Unicef) could not give further details on the numbers of youngsters involved,
for fear of jeopardising efforts to liberate more children.
"Children have
been rescued, not released" by the militants, Unicef spokesman James
Elder told reporters in Geneva.
They were saved by
"government forces," he said.
The Islamic
State-linked Al-Shabaab has been terrorizing the southeast African country's
gas-rich Cabo Delgado region since 2017, raiding villages and towns in a bid to
establish a caliphate.
The insurgency has
grown bolder, with attacks including a coordinated raid on Palma in March 2021
that left dozens dead and displaced thousands.
Last week Human Rights
Watch said Al-Shabaab had kidnapped hundreds of boys in the northeastern region
and forced them to join their ranks as child soldiers.
"There are
thousands of children who have been displaced" since the March attacks,
Elder said.
"In those areas...
we consider thousands of children to be at risk and certainly no children so
far have been released.
"I'd like to give
you more details on any children rescued, but of course we don't want to
endanger any ongoing negotiations."
Elder said that as
humanitarian access to Cabo Delgado began to improve, there were increasing
reports of abductions and the use of children in armed groups.
He said Unicef had
certain evidence of sexual violence against girls and forced marriages of
girls.
Elder said video
material secured by armed forces in an abandoned training camp -- which
Unicef has not yet been able to verify -- appears to show abducted
children as young as five "handling weapons and being indoctrinated to
fight".
Other recent reports of
abductions left "little doubt that children are being forcefully recruited
by this non-state armed group," he said.
"All feasible
measures should be taken to ensure that children are demobilized, disengaged,
or otherwise released, and provided with all appropriate protection services
for their social reintegration."
Children associated
with armed groups are primarily treated as survivors of violations under
international legal standards.
Unicef said it was
working with the Mozambican government to support the physical and mental
health of rescued soldiers and aid their safe reintegration into their
communities.
The UN agency has also
been training the Mozambican forces in what to do should they encounter
children with armed groups.
The insurgency has
killed more than 3,300 people -- half of them civilians -- and displaced
at least 800,000 from their homes over the past four years.
In July, Rwanda sent
1,000 troops to help Mozambique and several of the country's neighbours, led by
South Africa, have followed suit. - AFP
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