More than a thousand children under 18, girls and boys, are used to help out, especially in the transportation of sand or stone containing ores, and others are prostituted in several quarries in the territory of Djugu, alerted on Saturday January 20th, the Gender, Family and Children's Affairs office of this territorial entity.
According to this service, young girls are mainly used as waitresses in bars, and others are recruited into brothels for prostitution, all for a meager income that generates revenue for their keepers, the Gender, Family and Children's Affairs office specified.
However, a good number of parents also use their children in small business ventures, notably the selling of bread, doughnuts, and peanuts in the quarries. Consequently, the head of the gender, family, and children's services in the territory of Djugu, Biwaga Ruth, has attributed this practice, which has become almost normal, especially to poverty and insecurity, which prevails in this part of the national territory.
The activism of armed groups, for example, does not allow parents to engage in income-generating activities in order to properly take care of their children, she pointed out.
She is calling on the central Government to put an end to this exploitation that is destroying the future of these children, most of whom do not even attend school.
The Djugu territory's gender affairs office particularly recommends the establishment of a branch of the peace tribunal in Mongwalu in order to crack down on these children's rights violations. It also advocates the creation of a center for the supervision of minors to recover children who are missing out on school, reported Radio Okapi.
Gisèle Mbuyi