DRC's Child Soldier Crisis: Children Forced to Kill in Endless Conflict
For decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by protracted and bloody conflicts in its eastern regions, with children bearing the brunt of the violence as they are systematically recruited to serve as cannon fodder for warring militias. As rights groups warn of one of the world's most severe child recruitment crises, The Independent has spoken to children forced to kill and endure unimaginable horrors.
The Brutal Reality of Child Recruitment
Kito*, a 17-year-old boy from a small village in northeastern Ituri province, speaks with the husky tone of a late adolescent who has witnessed too much. "I killed at least 100 people," he reveals. "It's really difficult to know how many, because we were shooting people en masse. But obviously it's a lot."
The Ituri region, bordering Uganda and South Sudan, suffers some of the fiercest fighting in the country, home to dozens of warring ethnic militias and the Allied Democratic Forces, the DRC branch of Isis. While less heavily involved in the war between the Congolese government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, the region remains deeply affected by the violence that has intensified since the M23 launched a renewed insurgency in 2023.
Multiple armed groups operating in the DRC, including:
- The M23 rebel movement
- The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
- Militias in the government-aligned Wazalendo coalition
- Dozens of other armed factions
All stand accused of recruiting children, both boys and girls, who are forced into various roles including combat, searching for food, spying, agricultural labor, or serving as so-called "wives" for commanders.
Psychological Scars That Never Heal
Kito recalls the horrors of his time with one of the many armed militias in the war-ravaged country. "They were looking at me. It will stay with me forever, the things I saw and the horrible things I had to do. I killed people. I saw these people die every day."
He represents just one of thousands of children who have become cannon fodder for the endless violence in the DRC, which hosts the world's most severe child recruitment crisis. In Ituri province alone, 13,000 children remain in armed groups despite 1,360 being released in 2025.
The United Nations' annual report documents at least 2,365 children recruited across the country in the year to June 2025, but experts consider this a significant underestimate. In North Kivu province, the NGO Children for the Future and Development (EADEV) reports at least 2,054 child recruitments.
Recruitment Tactics and Vulnerable Targets
Most children are forcefully abducted, coerced, or drugged by militia groups, while others volunteer under pressure from militias or peers. Katharina von Schroeder, a director of advocacy at Save the Children, explains: "The children think they're doing the right thing by joining to protect their own community. Also some of the armed groups work with youth to recruit. So they will send children that are already with them to convince their friends. That is, unfortunately, a very successful strategy."
Children like Kito, whose family faced financial desperation after his father's death, become prime targets for local militias that coerce children with promises of money and respect. Kito was recruited on 24 September 2024 as an assistant to a colonel he describes as "really mean" and "really demanding."
His duties included fetching water and supplies, laying paths for missions, and engaging in battle against other armed groups, often facing children in opposing ranks. That November, he seized an opportunity to escape while creating a trail through the Ituri rainforest for an upcoming mission.
The Particular Horrors Faced by Girls
Escaping such a fate proved even more complicated for Imani*, recruited in August 2020 when she was just 12 years old. A friend convinced her to join an armed group when she was "young and didn't have the capacity of thinking," the now 18-year-old explains.
She endured several laborious roles within the group: "I was made to carry water, cultivate the land, carry bags. It was really difficult, because sometimes I would not eat for three days and then I was made to do that."
Imani was forced to serve as a so-called "wife" to one of the captains, repeatedly raped until she became pregnant little more than two years into her ordeal, aged just 15. Discussing this period brings too many painful memories: "It's too difficult to talk about."
After a complicated pregnancy, Imani gave birth in her home village but soon returned to the militia with her infant daughter, forced to work with a baby in her arms for nearly another year. She stole food from local farmers and carried heavy loads to market, often going to bed having not eaten for days.
When militia leaders and bodyguards were absent one morning while she was seriously ill, Imani and a friend quickly departed the village. At 16 years old, her scarred adolescence had been lost to four years of abuse and control by a brutal militia, but as of 15 August 2024, she was finally free.
The Difficult Road to Reintegration
Both Imani and Kito belong to the minority who successfully escape armed groups each year, reuniting with families and receiving support from NGOs that help them reintegrate into society. This process has grown more difficult following severe cuts to aid by the Trump administration.
USAID was previously the leading donor of humanitarian assistance in the DRC, but approximately 83 percent of programs have been cut, leaving assistance dangerously thin. The absence of aid and educational programs makes children more vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups.
Leaving armed groups doesn't guarantee an end to hardships. Resettling at home proves challenging, with children months or years behind peers academically and often struggling socially after losing their childhood to war. The psychological impact of what they've witnessed or participated in can be devastating.
Von Schroeder explains: "Parents invest in their childhood for a good future, send the child to school, and then the child is suddenly ripped out of the community, out of the family, and the families often don't know if the child is still alive, if they will ever come back. They're also scared that if the children come back, they will become violent because they're so traumatised."
Imani's mother welcomed her home, though she wanted to understand why her daughter left. Kito found his mother and brother welcoming but felt like an outsider: "When I arrived home, my mother and brother were so nice to me, they welcomed me home. I was so happy. But I felt like an outsider, because the other children went to school, they were living life, and I didn't know what to do."
Rebuilding Lives Against All Odds
Both survivors have since turned their lives around through vocational training. Kito has trained in carpentry and now works in a workshop, a transformation he says he's "really proud of." He notes: "I've kind of forgotten everything that happened. Sometimes I think about it but I don't remember anything. My job is taking a lot of time, and it's good for me, because I don't think about these things."
Imani, now training in tailoring, acknowledges the trauma hasn't ruined her vision of the future: "I haven't forgotten everything. Sometimes I remember the struggle of what happened. But what is in the past is in the past."
*Names have been changed to protect identities. This article has been produced as part of The Independent's Rethinking Global Aid project.
