BURUNDI: Thousands of roaming, traumatised child soldiers pose a threat to Burundi's fragile peace, according to Amnesty International.
Child soldiers have been used as "a cheap and expendable tool" throughout the 10-year civil war, says the human rights group in a report out today.
Fighting has slowed since the government and the main rebel group signed a peace deal last year. Although up to 7,000 children are awaiting demobilisation, just 300 have been disarmed.
Without urgent intervention, the child soldiers risk being sucked into violent crime or re-recruitment by the FNL, a smaller rebel group that has continued fighting, Amnesty warns.
The FNL was blamed for the assassination of the Irish Papal Nuncio to Burundi, Archbishop Michael Courtney, last December.
Children have been used as fighters, porters, informants and "wives" during the Burundian war. Some fought in the war in neighbouring DR Congo. Jean-Noel joined the Burundian army at 15. Over the following five years, he saw friends commit suicide and fellow-soldiers murder prisoners. "I didn't want to do the things I did. All I did was through fear," he told Amnesty researchers.
"Fabienne" was forced into a rebel group at 13. She was rustled into a forest to cook, carry looted goods and provide sex. "I don't know how many people had sex with me. A man would come, then another and another. You couldn't refuse . . . They said they'd kill you if you ran away."
Such child soldiers need to be urgently demobilised with special attention to sex-abuse victims, said Ms Lesley Warner of Amnesty UK. Demobilisation plans are afoot, but in Burundi, one of the world's poorest countries, there are few facilities.
Now 20, Jean-Noel has returned home. He would like to go to school but, for now, there is nothing.