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On Thursday 22 June, 13 children, and accompanying adults working in partnership with Save the Children were travelling in a minibus from Goma to Kitchanga in the province of North Kivu to be reunified with their families. One of the children was reunified on the way but when the bus reached Kabalekasha, 8 kms south of Kitchanga, it was stopped by heavily armed and aggressive soldiers. The children were formerly associated with armed forces and groups and had been living in transit centres in Goma whilst their families were traced so they could be reintegrated into their home communities. The driver, a pregnant woman, and 6 children were taken prisoner by the soldiers. They were taken by the abductors to their military camp with their possessions where they were put in an underground prison. The 6 other children and accompanying adults managed to escape. Three of the children managed to make their own way back to the transit centres in Goma and are being cared for. The driver was released that night and the pregnant woman who was badly beaten was released the next morning. She is in a stable condition but she remains in hospital.
Save the Children immediately alerted MONUC and the UN to the situation. MONUC led negotiations with the abductors, which resulted in the release of the abducted children. The released children are back in Goma and being taken care of in temporary foster families. They are in good physical health. Efforts continue through Save the Children partners in Kitchanga to try to establish the whereabouts of the 3 other children who escaped.
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children Chief Executive expressed her outrage, "The situation for children in Eastern DRC is utterly horrific. Every day children are exploited and abused. It's estimated that more children have died in the DRC as a result of the ongoing conflict and lawlessness than any other war in recent history, yet it rarely makes international headlines." Save the Children demands stronger UN and Government action to support the safe demobilisation and reintegration of children into their communities and the enforcement of legal sanctions against those who commit violence against children.