Staff Writer

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently published a report documenting child recruitment by fighters in the current ‘insurgency’ in Northern Cabo Delgado. The report documents the freeing of child soldiers by government troops, some as young as 5 years old, with UNICEF refraining from providing numbers and arguing that this would endanger other ongoing activities.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which published a report predating UNICEF’s findings, alluded to this, arguing that much is required for these child soldiers to be freed. The historical recruitment of child soldiers by FRILEMO and RENAMO during Mozambique’s civil war was also noted. Under international law, child soldiers are viewed as victims during conflict.

Meanwhile, Mavhinga alluded to the growing repression in Rwanda. The most recent case was that of Paul Rusesabagina, one of the most recognisable Rwandans, who had been convicted of terrorism related charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Rusesabagina was abducted from the UAE en route to Burundi, and then held without proper access to his lawyers in Rwanda. Mavhinga noted the great strides taken by Rwandan authorities in holding those responsible for the 1994 genocide accountable, and preserving the record of the genocide. He did, however, warn regarding the lack of due process being followed in relation to President Paul Kagame’s efforts to confront dissidents. The Rwandan regime was, in September, accused of assassinating a dissident in Mozambique, and has been fingered in having a hand in the assassinations of other dissidents in South Africa. Some have even argued that Rwanda’s dispatch of troops to Mozambique was a means of enabling it to use the country as a base to confront dissidents in Southern Africa.

Corruption and the flouting of rights are severely disempowering communities in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The latter has seen indigenous people losing their lands as a result of mining by Chinese companies, and to implement large-scale agricultural farming. Many have pointed to the rapacious behaviour of Chinese owned companies, which have regularly flouted regulations and are not being held accountable.

In Kenya, Mavhinga argued that although the focus was currently on president Uhuru Kenyatta’s family’s use of offshore companies for investments and wealth creation, the larger problem is corruption. Significantly in this regard, the public prosecutor is allegedly refusing to deal with corruption cases brought to it by the Anti-corruption Commission that deal with politicians.