Press Release
First Group of Congolese Children
Returned Home from Uganda
KAMPALA / NAIROBI / GENEVA, 5 July 2001 - UNICEF took
a major step toward reuniting 159 Congolese children with their families
in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday when it repatriated
a first group of the children in an airlift from Uganda to Bunia, DRC.
The first 34 children were flown home to Bunia in the eastern part
of the DRC on Wednesday 4 July. The two youngest children in the group
say they are nine and twelve years old. Among the 34 children are two
girls. They were flown in two groups on a civilian plane chartered by
the International Office for Migration. Bunia is in the Ituri District
of the DRC.
The 159 children have been under the interim care and protection of
UNICEF-Uganda since February of this year, when the government of Uganda
handed them over. Before being transferred to UNICEF-Uganda, the children
had been undergoing political and military training since August 2000
in Kyankwanzi.
Since leaving the Kyankwanzi National Political Education School, the
children have been staying in a World Vision Uganda Transit Centre in
Kiryandongo (Masindi District), 220 km north of Kampala, under the close
supervision of UNICEF-Uganda. During the past five months, UNICEF and
its partners have been providing the children with schooling, psycho-social
counselling and vocational training while simultaneously tracing their
families and preparing the ground for a return home.
UNICEF-DRC and a local partner organization, SOS Grands Lacs, have
put measures in place to carefully monitor the reception of the initial
group before transporting more of the children.
The children are being repatriated in co-operation with the government
of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Congolese Liberation Front
(FLC) and the Government of Uganda. All parties have pledged to prevent
recruitment of the children into any armed force.
The UNICEF Representative in Uganda, Michel Sidibe, emphasized today
that the families of all 34 children have been traced and are expecting
the children. "In a place that has witnessed so much conflict,
we hope that the peaceful return of the children will contribute to
healing wounds," he said.
Work by World Vision Uganda, the International Organization for Migration,
and family tracing done by SOS Grands Lacs have all paved the way for
a smooth family reunification and reintegration process. SOS Grands
Lacs will maintain regular contact with the children and their families
once they have returned home.
"It has been an extremely complex process, and of course there
are many problems in eastern Congo," Sidibe said. "UNICEF
in both the DRC and Uganda know that the best place for these children
is back in their homes, and we appeal for everyone to help make this
return a successful one for the children. We know these kids are very,
very happy to be returning home."
The UNICEF Representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Martin
Mogwanja, called the repatriation "a victory for children's rights"
in a region scarred by conflict since 1998.
"This is a victory for the rights of these children, especially
their fundamental right to live in the care and protection of their
own families," Mogwanja said. "We must all work to ensure
that peace prevails in this region so that the future of these children
and millions of others is never again compromised."
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