Toddler twins tied to explosive belt: UN says DRC worst place to be child

Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] has the world's highest number of UN-verified grave violations against children in armed conflict, said UNICEF Representative in DRC.

"Over the past year, this upsurge in violence and conflict in eastern DRC has resulted in the worst displacement crisis in Africa and one of the worst globally," said Grant Leaity in a statement on Friday.

The violence, he said, "has reached unprecedented levels."

"There are few worse places, if any, to be a child."

He said more than 2.8 million children are bearing the brunt of the crisis in eastern DRC.

He noted that on a daily basis, children are being raped, killed, and are being abducted, recruited, "and used by armed groups – and the reports they have are only the tip of the iceberg".

Leaity recalled his recent visit to a centre in North Kivu for children released from armed groups and said he met one-year-old twins.

"They were found abandoned in their village, desperately malnourished, and attached to an explosive belt. The expanding use of improvised explosive devices is just one of several recent, depraved trends," said Leaity.

More funding needed

He said that in the first three months of 2023, in North Kivu alone, more than 38,000 cases of sexual- and gender-based violence were reported and that apart from violence, the lives of children in eastern DRC are threatened by epidemics and malnutrition, with 1.2 million children under five in the east are facing the risk of acute malnutrition.

He said that UNICEF has the solutions to respond to all the humanitarian needs of children, provided it gets the resources to do so.

To scale up its humanitarian response, UNICEF requires $400 million.

However, their appeal has only received 1 percent additional funding since the emergency scale-up was announced in June this year, and they desperately require additional funding.