U.N. demands end to DRC child recruitment

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council is demanding that rebel groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lay down their arms and stop recruiting children.

Officials say the worsening security situation in the eastern region of the DRC where fighting has escalated between government forces and with rebel Gen. Laurent Nkunda loyalists is forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes in what some are considering the worst fighting in the region since the DRC civil war ended in 2003, the United Nations reported.

"The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports that since August, some 170,000 people have been forced out of their homes in North Kivu by the fighting. Over the last year, a mix of conflict, military build-up and spiraling lawlessness has displaced 400,000 people in the province," the release said.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the DRC estimates that up to 8,500 former child soldiers rescued after the civil war have been re-recruited or used as sex slaves.

The Security Council recently extended the U.N. peacekeeping mandate for another year, and more than 4,500 blue helmets have recently been deployed to North Kivu.