By Cecile Rossi | Fundraising intern
Neema was a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her story could have ended up quite differently but luckily, she met wonderful individuals who gave her an alternative to militia life.
Neema was born in Rutshuru, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One evening, when Neema was just 14 years old, M23 soldiers invaded and looted her village.
During the raid, Neema was abducted along with several other girls from the area. She says: ‘'Since this was not enough, they took me with them to the Busanze camp with five other girls including Noella, Anifa, Mariam, Mwisa and Sifa, who were with us on the land'’.
Neema embarked on a long journey to a M23 training camp. She was terrified. M23 rebels even killed one of Neema’s friends on the way to the camp, only because she said that she was tired and needed to rest.
Neema and the other abducted children arrived at the training camp. Their living conditions were terrible, they had to sleep on the floor and struggled to get even one meal a day.
“I had to steal bananas from people’s fields to survive but often as we came back from our banana stealing mission, the M23 soldiers took everything we stole away from us and whipped us.”
Neema and other abducted children were appointed as scouts for M23 looting operations in villages. They had to point out rich people’s houses so that M23 rebels could loot them. Neema was forced to turn against her own community to support M23 looting operations.
The abducted children were also in charge of defending M23’s stolen position, with barely any weapons available to protect themselves.
Neema barely had any food and suffered physical and sexual abuse. She feared what would happen to her, she couldn’t see a future.
Luckily, Neema came in contact with our ,local partner, Centre Résolution Conflits (CRC), who helped her leave the bush and return home.
Our local partner supported Neema once she returned back to her village but she was victimised by the people she had looted. She received regular death threats. She eventually fled the village and, thanks to CRC, started a new life somewhere else.
CRC gave Neema psychological support, and trained her to learn a job for six months. They also paid her schooling fees, enabling her to obtain her end of primary school certificate and to move to secondary education.Thanks to your support, Neema and other child soldiers found an alternative to violence. But we still need your help. Please donate to this cause.
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