National Intelligence Agency directive on handover of children associated with armed groups

In May 2013, the National Intelligence Agency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo issued a directive “in which it stated that all children in detention on charges of association with armed groups should be handed over immediately to United Nations child protection actors.”[1] However, according to the United Nations Secretary-General’s 2014 report on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “93 children were arrested by FARDC [Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo] from March to November 2013 during clashes in Katanga, North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale Province. While 83 children were released, 10 remained in detention after being declared adults by an FARDC medical officer in December 2013. Among the 93 children, 20 claiming to be Rwandan and 30 claiming to be Congolese formerly associated with M23 were arrested in North Kivu and South Kivu and transferred to the military intelligence headquarters and to the National Security Agency in Kinshasa. Some of the children subsequently reported poor detention conditions and ill-treatment during interrogations. Many of them had been transferred from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kinshasa by FARDC.”[2]

[1] “Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” United Nations Secretary-General, S/2014/453, June 30, 2014, p. 12, https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n14/431/95/pdf/n1443195.pdf.

[2] Ibid., at 8.