{"id":6867,"date":"2012-12-13T10:02:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T10:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=6867"},"modified":"2012-12-17T12:16:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T12:16:36","slug":"rescued-child-soldiers-evacuated-to-new-camp-as-rebels-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=6867","title":{"rendered":"Rescued child soldiers evacuated to new camp as rebels advance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former<\/a>

Former child soldiers at transit camp Bria<\/p><\/div>\n

Until the day before yesterday the transit camp at Bria was a bustling place of hope. There children, rescued from their fates as child soldiers and sex slaves in the rebel militias of the Central African Republic, were beginning the long slow task of returning to their childhood \u2013 and leaving behind the brutal nightmare of forced soldiering in the African bush.<\/p>\n

But then the word came, relayed from the city of Ndele to the north, that a new rebel force was sweeping south.\u00a0 It had already taken Ndele and was on its way towards the capital Bangui. The dissident band was rampaging through the north-east of the country, looting homes and forcing families to flee into the bush.<\/p>\n

Bria was in its path.\u00a0 And these rebels were not party to the agreement negotiated by \u00a0Unicef, the United Nations children\u2019s charity, to gradually free children from military serfdom in the rebel groups of this landlocked African country on the borders of Chad, the Congo and war-torn South Sudan.<\/p>\n

Aid workers made the decision to evacuate the transit camp which was home to 25 of the children at the centre of the Independent\u2019s Christmas Appeal to raise funds for Unicef\u2019s rescue of child soldiers. It was only a few days since the newspaper\u2019s chairman, Evgeny Lebedev, had been in the camp to meet the rebel leaders at the centre of the audacious moves to negotiate the children\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n

Terror gripped the rescued children as a Unicef aid worker raised the alarm. Word swiftly spread among the former child combatants that armed men might be approaching the sanctuary established by the charity to house them during their rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had heard through their friends still in the bush what was happening and were concerned for their safety,\u201d said Unicef worker, Linda Tom. They all knew that, if captured, the children face re-recruitment as child soldiers \u2013 or worse. \u201cWe were nervous too as the infrastructure here is very basic. The decision was made that there was no choice but to evacuate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 25 rescued children began hurriedly to pack their few belongings. Within the hour they were piled into the back of trucks to leave the rehabilitation centre and be taken to a UN refugee centre in Bamberi, a safer part of this remote former French colony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe children were quiet but calm as we left in trucks,\u201d Linda Tom said. \u201cThe journey to Bamberi was near-silent in stark contrast to the day before when we\u2019d taken them to swim in the nearby river.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the north units of the national army moved to engage the Kalashnikov-wielding rebels. Government forces launched a counter-attack to try to re-establish control of Ndele from which as many as 15,000 people are believed to have fled.<\/p>\n

As dusk approached the rescued children from Bria entire met up with other trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles fleeing other Unicef centres in conflict areas where rebels were pillaging buildings looking for supplies and reinforcements.<\/p>\n

The convoy drove through the night to reach sanctuary in Bambari, where UNHCR staff were waiting to house and feed them. \u201cIt was a pretty crazy journey,\u201d one aid worker said, \u201cbut the important thing is all the children are safe and accounted for\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yesterday Unicef workers were preparing a centre for street children in the capital Bangui for the arrival of the rescued child soldiers. Staff were busy supplying it with mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, soap, water, food, tents, cooking sets, toys and school materials. It will be home to the children until the situation in the north-east of the country stabilises.<\/p>\n

The task of the staff who travelled with the children from Bria is to ensure that lives are disrupted as little as possible, said Unicef deputy representative Mary Louise Eagleton. \u00a0\u201cSo it is essential to provide a safe nurturing space for them to continue to get the counselling and education they need to deal with the trauma they have experienced in the armed groups,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will return them to the transit centre as soon as it is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dramatic events highlight the importance of Unicef\u2019s work to ensure the safety of vulnerable former child soldiers no matter what happens. \u201cWe now need funds more urgently than ever,\u201d Mary Louise Eagleton said, \u201cto make sure that these children, who have already been through so much in their short lives, get everything they desperately need to rebuild their futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

additional reporting by\u00a0 Oliver Poole in Bangui<\/em><\/p>\n

DONATE : <\/strong>Just \u00a315 will cover the daily cost of food, counselling and continued education for a former child soldier in the new shelter <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Until the day before yesterday the transit camp at Bria was a bustling place of hope. There children, rescued from their fates as child soldiers and sex slaves in the rebel militias of the Central African Republic, were beginning the long slow task of returning to their childhood \u2013 and leaving behind the brutal nightmare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,35],"tags":[586,583,582,581],"class_list":["post-6867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-aid-development","tag-bria","tag-central-african-republic","tag-child-soldiers","tag-unicef"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6867"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6917,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions\/6917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}