Children in CAR Victims of Appalling Abuse, Brutality - UN

A review by U.N. independent experts of the human rights situation in the Central African Republic reveals rampant ethnic violence and systemic gross violations throughout the country with children suffering appalling abuse and brutality at the hands of armed groups, defense and security forces, and private military and security companies.

"The people of the Central African Republic face a daily reality of sudden spikes of violence where fear is used as a weapon and serious trauma, which has been caused by years of violence." said Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights in his opening salvo at the U.N. human rights council Friday.

Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict said the number of grave violations committed against children in 2022 had decreased compared to the previous year.

However, she added that conflict continued to take a heavy toll on boys and girls with many being killed and maimed by gunshots and explosive remnants of war.

"The recruitment and use of children remained the most prevalent violation verified in 2022," she said. "While boys were most affected, girls were also recruited and used by parties to conflict and most of them were subjected to sexual violence during their association. Some of the girls became pregnant following the rape."

She said children were driven to join armed groups because of poverty and protection of their communities from attacks by rival armed groups.