According to a report published yesterday, almost 1,000 cases of child recruitment by armed groups were verified by the mission – known by its French acronym MONUSCO – between 1 January 2012 and 31 August 2013, predominantly in the eastern province of North Kivu.

“Despite awareness raising campaigns and attempts to pacify armed groups, recruitment of children remains endemic in the country, with high numbers of children recruited in the past two years as a result of renewed hostilities in the east of the country,” states the report, the first of its kind by the UN mission.

The armed groups Nyatura, Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and the 23 March Movement (M23) were identified as having recruited 190, 137 and 124 children, respectively, into their groups during the reporting period.

Children who were victim of recruitment within the ranks of these armed groups were also victims and witnesses of other grave child rights violations, such as rape, abduction, killing and maiming.

“This situation is unacceptable and has been going on for much too long with impunity. Recruiting children into armed groups is a crime, and destroys the lives of the victims who are forced to do things that no child should be involved in,” said Martin Kobler, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for DRC and head of MONUSCO. “We need to stop this now. One case of child recruitment is one case to many,” he added.

In the majority of cases, children were abducted and forced to join the groups. Others joined voluntarily after having been promised money, education, jobs and other benefits by recruiters. Children were used as porters, cooks, spies, sex slaves, guards and combatants.

Minors formerly associated with the M23 described how they were tasked with burying bodies of adults and children who lost their lives during clashes with the DRC national army (FARDC) and other armed groups.

MONUSCO called on the commanders of all armed groups to immediately stop grave violations perpetrated against children and to unconditionally release all children still held within their ranks.

National authorities are encouraged to ensure full and effective implementation of the Action Plan signed between the Government and the UN to end and prevent child recruitment; hold perpetrators of grave child rights violations accountable; support MONUSCO in gaining access to negotiate for the release of children from armed groups; and ensure that armed groups who wish to integrate into the FARDC are screened for the presence of minors who must be handed-over to MONUSCO or child protection partners.

The mission also recommended that the Government, the international community, donors and all child protection actors ensure all efforts are made to prevent child recruitment and to ensure long-term, sustainable reintegration programmes for the victims.

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) expressed “deep concern” about the latest bout of fighting which broke out after a significant group of the M23 attacked the national forces (FARDC) on 14 July in Mutaho, eight kilometres northwest of Goma, in eastern DRC. According to the Mission, heavy artillery and a battle tank were used in the attack.

“Any attempt by the M23 to advance toward Goma will be considered a direct threat to civilians,” the Mission warned. It also noted that the UN blue helmets stand ready to take any necessary measures, including the use of lethal force, in order to protect civilians.

The acting Special Representative of the Secretary General in the country, Moustapha Soumaré, urged restraint to avoid a further escalation of the situation.

“I call on all to abide by the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Agreement and to allow the political process towards peace to move forward,” Soumaré said, referring to the UN-brokered accord adopted in February with the support of 11 nations and four international organizations (11+4), with the aim of ending the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC and to build peace in the long-troubled Great Lakes region.

“I urge all signatories of the PSC Framework to exercise their influence in order to avoid an escalation of the situation,” he added.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes Region, along with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, visited the DRC in May to bolster support for the PSC Framework which Ms. Robinson dubbed a “framework for hope.”

Last month, there was talk of a possible resumption of peace talks between the Government of the DRC and the M23. At that time, Mrs. Robinson had urged both sides to engage in earnest discussion under the auspices of the Chairperson of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Mr. Robinson was convened in Burundi last week a conference to help develop a road map for women’s engagement in efforts to bring peace to Africa’s long-trouble Great Lakes countries.

Since March, tensions in the region have been heightened, leading to the Security Council to authorize in March the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without FARDC, against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC.

In a resolution adopted unanimously last night, the 15-member body also demanded “the cessation of any further advances by the M23 and that its members immediately and permanently disband and lay down their arms…”

The M23 – composed of soldiers who mutinied from the DRC national army in April – launched new attacks over the weekend in North Kivu province, uprooting some 60,0000 civilians and prompting the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) to deploy attack helicopters in aid of the national army, known by the French acronym FARDC.

Eastern DRC has been hit this year by massive humanitarian needs triggered by the rise of the M23 and violence by more than two dozen other armed groups across the region, with widespread abuses against civilians including murder, rape and brutal reprisals.

The Council “strongly condemns the M23 and all its attacks on the civilian population, MONUSCO peacekeepers and humanitarian actors, as well as its abuses of human rights, including summary executions, sexual and gender-based violence and large scale recruitment and use of child soldiers,” it stated in the resolution.

Briefing the Council today via video-link from DRC, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece, said that currently the M23 effectively occupies a significant portion of North Kivu, and it has been setting up a formal administrative or governing structure.

“We have received numerous reports of targeted summary executions of those who stand in their way, including government and traditional leaders who resist or fail to cooperate with an M23 administrative structure,” he stated. “We also continue to receive ongoing reports of widespread recruitment and use of children, unconfirmed cases of sexual violence, and other serious human rights abuses.”

Mr. Meece added that the rebels have not achieved full support by any ethnic group or community. “Indeed, the M23 does not enjoy broad support in North Kivu, or elsewhere in eastern DRC.”

There have been various allegations of external support to the M23. On this matter, the envoy noted that the rebels are “well provisioned, and well supplied with uniforms, and a variety of arms and munitions, many of which clearly have not come from existing FARDC stocks.

“They exhibit many characteristics of a strong, disciplined, established military force with sophisticated tactics and operations, including night operations, which are not characteristic of traditional performance,” he said.

MONUSCO, he noted, does not have the mandate or means to investigate or verify the sources or means by which these “impressive” capabilities have been achieved. “We can and have reported our encounters with English-speaking officers, surprising weaponry and equipment being used, and other signs of external support,” he added.

The Council, in the resolution, expressed deep concern at reports indicating that external support continues to be provided to the M23, including through troop reinforcement, tactical advice and the supply of equipment, causing a significant increase of the military abilities of the M23. It demanded that “any and all outside support to the M23 cease immediately.”

It also expressed its intention to consider additional targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23 and those providing external support to it and those acting in violation of the sanctions regime and the arms embargo imposed by the Council in relation to the DRC.

The Council requested the Secretary-General to report in the coming days on options for the possible redeployments of MONUSCO contingents and additional force multipliers, observation capabilities and troops that could improve the Mission’s ability to carry out its mandate, including to protect civilians and report on flows of arms and related materiel across the borders of eastern DRC.

MONUSCO, with 19,000 uniformed personnel, is the latest iteration of UN peacekeeping missions that have helped to bring stability and civilian elections to the vast nation after it was torn apart by civil wars and rebel movements.

“In most cases, people have left behind their homes, their fields and livestock, which are their sole source of food and income,” said the World Food Programme (WFP) Representative in DRC, Martin Ohlsen. “They are therefore – even if they just fled 20 kilometres away from their village – cut off from any sort of support for their families.”

An estimated 390,000 people have been internally displaced in eastern DRC and more than 60,000 Congolese have fled to neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda since fighting erupted in the North Kivu province in April between Government forces and the M23 rebel group.

The conflict is intensifying, WFP said in a news release, with militia groups fighting to extend their zones of influence. Human right violations, including murders, looting, rapes and abductions, have also led to massive population movement in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, North Katanga, Maniema and Province Orientale.

The new operation, which will target these five provinces, will provide people with high energy biscuits, followed by emergency food rations or, in areas where markets are functioning, cash or vouchers that allow them to purchase their own food.

To fund the emergency operation, the agency has also launched an appeal for $81 million. However, Ohlsen said that so far only 15 per cent of the total cost had been mobilized.

As part of the operation, WFP is boosting the use of innovative tools to increase the efficiency of its emergency assistance such as the distribution of cash and vouchers, which has proved to be cost effective and has helped some 77,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Kivu. The programme will be expanded to other provinces over the next few months, and is planned to cover 188,000 people.

Between January and August, WFP provided food assistance to about 730,000 people displaced in eastern DRC, living in camps, informal settlements or with host families.

In addition to emergency response operations, WFP said it will continue to provide support to the Congolese who face day-to-day struggles such as chronic food insecurity, malnutrition in children and pregnant or nursing women, and a high incidence of HIV and tuberculosis. An additional $84.6 million is required to continue to address these issues in the country, the agency said.

“It’s important not to forget that this crisis in the East is taking place in one of the poorest countries in the world, where 5.4 million people were already facing chronic hunger and malnutrition,” Ohlsen added.

Human Rights Watch based its findings on interviews with 190 Congolese and Rwandan victims, family members, witnesses, local authorities, and current or former M23 fighters between May and September.

“The M23 rebels are committing a horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “M23 commanders should be held accountable for these crimes, and the Rwandan officials supporting these abusive commanders could face justice for aiding and abetting the crimes.”

The M23 armed group consists of soldiers who participated in a mutiny from the Congolese national army in April and May 2012. The group’s senior commanders have a well-known history of serious abuses against civilians. In June the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, identified five of the M23’s leaders as “among the worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the world.” They include Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted on two arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ituri district, and Col. Sultani Makenga, who is implicated in the recruitment of children and several massacres in eastern Congo.

Based on its research, Human Rights Watch documented the forced recruitment of at least 137 young men and boys in Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo, by M23 rebels since July. Most were abducted from their homes, in the market, or while walking to their farms. At least seven were under age 15.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that at least 33 new recruits and other M23 fighters were summarily executed when they attempted to flee. Some were tied up and shot in front of other recruits as an example of the punishment they could receive.

One young recruit told Human Rights Watch, “When we were with the M23, they said [we had a choice] and could stay with them or we could die. Lots of people tried to escape. Some were found and then that was immediately their death.”

Since June, M23 fighters have deliberately killed at least 15 civilians in areas under their control, some because they were perceived to be against the rebels, Human Rights Watch said. The fighters also raped at least 46 women and girls. The youngest rape victim was eight years old. M23 fighters shot dead a 25-year-old woman who was three months pregnant because she resisted being raped. Two other women died from the wounds inflicted on them when they were raped by M23 fighters.

M23 rebels have committed abuses against civilians with horrific brutality, Human Rights Watch said. Just after midnight on July 7, 2012, M23 fighters attacked a family in the village of Chengerero. A 32-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch that the M23 fighters broke down their door, beat her 15-year-old son to death, and abducted her husband. Before leaving, the M23 fighters gang-raped her, poured fuel between her legs, and set the fuel on fire. A neighbor came to the woman’s aid after the M23 fighters left. The whereabouts of the woman’s husband remain unknown.

Local leaders, customary chiefs, journalists, human rights activists and others who spoke out against the M23’s abuses – or are known to have denounced the rebel commanders’ previous abuses – have been targeted. Many received death threats and have fled to Congolese government-controlled areas.

M23 leaders deny that they or their forces have committed any crimes. In an interview with Human Rights Watch on August 8, Col. Makenga, one of the M23’s leaders, denied allegations of forced recruitment and summary executions, claiming those who joined their ranks did so voluntarily. “We recruit our brothers, not by force, but because they want to help their big brothers…. That’s their decision,” he said. “They are our little brothers, so we can’t kill them.” He described the repeated reports of forced recruitment by his forces as Congolese government propaganda.

Rwandan military officials have also continued to recruit by force or under false pretenses young men and boys, including under the age of 15, in Rwanda to augment the M23’s ranks. Recruitment of children under age 15 is a war crime and contravenes Rwandan law.

On June 4, Human Rights Watch reported that between 200 and 300 Rwandans were recruited in Rwanda in April and May and taken across the border to fight alongside M23 forces. Human Rights Watch has since gathered further evidence of forced recruitment in Rwanda in June, July, and August with several hundred more recruited. Based on interviews with witnesses and victims, Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 600 young men and boys have been forcibly or otherwise unlawfully recruited in Rwanda to join the M23, and possibly many more. These recruits outnumber those recruited for the M23 in Congo.

Congolese and Rwandans, including local authorities, who live near the Rwanda-Congo border told Human Rights Watch that they saw frequent troop movements of Rwandan soldiers in and out of Congo in June, July, and August in apparent support of M23 rebels. They said that Rwandan army soldiers frequently used the footpath near Njerima hill in Rwanda, close to Karisimbi volcano, to cross the border.

In addition to deploying reinforcements and recruits to support military operations, Rwandan military officials have been providing important military support to the M23 rebels, including weapons, ammunition, and training, Human Rights Watch said. This makes Rwanda a party to the conflict.

“The Rwandan government’s repeated denials that its military officials provide support for the abusive M23 rebels beggars belief,” Van Woudenberg said. “The United Nations Security Council should sanction M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials who are helping them, for serious rights abuses.”

The armed conflict in eastern Congo is bound by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, including Common Article 3 and Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit summary executions, rape, forced recruitment, and other abuses. Serious laws-of-war violations committed deliberately or recklessly are war crimes. Commanders may be criminally responsible for war crimes by their forces if they knew or should have known about such crimes and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible.

A United Nations Group of Experts that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions violations in Congo independently presented compelling evidence of Rwandan support to the M23 rebels. Its findings were published in a 48-page addendum to the Group’s interim report in June 2012. The Rwandan government has denied these allegations. The UN sanctions committee should immediately seek additional information on M23 leaders and Rwandan military officers named by the Group of Experts with a view to adopting targeted sanctions against them, Human Rights Watch said.