Thousands of Congolese Schools Closed as Fighting Continues
Children at a Food Relief Centre in DRC
According to UNICEF estimates some 150,000 children in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are missing school owing to the continuing fighting
The fighting which has been more or less continuous since 1998 and has claimed 5.4 million lives - equivalent to the entire population of Denmark - is having a partiulcarly devastating effect on children not least because a large proportion of the 45,000 killed every month are themselves children. Schools are being occupied by armed groups or sometimes by people fleeing the conflict - armed groups are also recruiting children as young as 14 to become fighters. Many others have been separated from their families when they have been displaced by the fighting and they face disease and malnutrition in the camps. 60% of those fleeing are children. Teachers in DRC earn approximately $2 a day.
January 11 2009 04:19 pm | General