Innocence of Youth Is Victim of Congo War

A boy fled the fighting  on Sunday in Bunia, Congo.

Michael Kamber for The New York Times

Many of the child soldiers who

were demobilized two years ago

have signed up to fight again.

UNIA, Congo — The warlords have killed even childhood here.

As militia groups battle for control of this provincial town in Congo's northeast, Bunia's young are paying a high price. The war has shuttered their schools, left them lame and hungry, killed their parents before their eyes. It has turned children into merciless killers and haunted them with memories of mayhem unfitting for the most hard-bitten grown-ups. Girls have been raped, toddlers have been butchered, babies left crying among dead bodies. [...]

continua NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 23 2003

By SOMINI SENGUPTA