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Children as young as nine in refugees camps in Chad are being sold to rebel groups in Darfur to fight. (Photo through Google) |
CAIRO — Children as young as nine in refugees camps in Chad are being trafficked and sold to rebel groups in Sudan's troubled Darfur region to fight against the Khartoum government, a British human rights group has said.
"There are people in the camps who are responsible, who have links with the [armed] movements," a community elder told Waging Peace group in a report posted on its website on Friday, June 6.
"They sell the children who are 10 years old to join them. They sell them for money."
A two-month investigation in two refugee camps in eastern Chad found that child boys are kidnapped in broad daylight and sold to rebel groups.
"There are leaders within our midst who help the movement [Justice and Equality Movement] and who profit from it... I mean they are selling the children," another community leader said.
Elders said that the Chadian government stood by while deals to sell the children were transacted.
A French-led force of European peacekeepers, supposedly in Chad to stop attacks on refugees, has also done little to stop the child selling.
"One leader… uses his Thuraya [satellite telephone] to contact the movement who are encamped … just on the other side of the refugee camp," said the community leader.
"He calls them when the humanitarians [NGOs] return to their base and then the JEM commanders come and meet in his tent to conclude the trade."
There are an estimated 240,000 Darfuri refugees living in camps in Chad, as well as a further 170,000 Chadians displaced by a local rebellion in the country's east.
The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels took up arms against the Khartoum regime accusing it of discrimination.
The UN estimates some 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease in Darfur, a region the size of France.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Up to 2 million have been forced out of their homes in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Disillusioned
The British rights group said a recent JEM attack close to the capital Khartoum has created a growing demand for child soldiers.
"The rebels used to have the support of the population and would have no trouble recruiting young men of fighting age," said Louise Roland Gosselin, director of Waging Peace.
"Now most people have turned against them, and they simply can't find enough adult troops. That's what's driving the trafficking in children."
JEM faction of Khalil Ibrahim launched last month a daring attack on Omdurman, on the opposite bank of the River Nile from Khartoum.
Now many Darfuri refugees say they have become disillusioned by the rebel groups, who see them fighting for their own political ends, rather than the good of the Darfuris.
"We fled because of the war and we don't want to have any rebel activities inside the camp," one refugee said.
"We want at least the children left to us to be educated. To have a start to life instead of being fighters."
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