Child soldier-turned-law-student aims to fight for war victims

Joseph* is a proud final-year law student at the University of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). His mission is to become an advocate for vulnerable children who end up in armed groups to fight in the war-torn country, especially in the East African region.

But, as Joseph grapples with completing his courses, he also works on restoring his reputation. The reason? For six years he was one of the child soldiers, forced to commit atrocities that still haunt him and cause others to reject him.

“My life as a child soldier hurt my academic career and coping has not been easy. Some of my fellow students bully me and call me a rebel, while others call me an armed robber,” he says. “I do all I can to be a model student at university, but my past as a child soldier still haunts me day and night.”

Born in a village nestled in the heart of Goma town in the DRC, Joseph knew little of the world beyond his immediate surroundings. Joseph’s life was no different from the lives of other children – until he was 14 years old, and an empty promise of escaping poverty forced him into the armed groups in the Eastern Democratic Republic jungles.

More than 140 armed groups operate on Congolese soil especially in the Eastern part, having recruited at least 10,000 children, according to a 2022 UNICEF report.

“I was a secondary school student when a neighbour who was also a friend came to me and told me how I could be rich. He promised me that I would be earning a lot of money, which to me was like a miracle,” he recalls with a mixture of regret and defiance. “In our community, people were struggling to survive. This was a chance to escape poverty. But I was cheated and ruled by an armed group which I served for six years,” Joseph says.

At 14, Joseph was considered a shield in the armed group Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (Force de résistance patriotique d’Ituri, or FRPI). After a six-month training period, he was forced to fight alongside other soldiers.

The FRPI is a political party operating in Bunia with a rebel armed wing that was named after it and is active in the Ituri province in the DRC.

Children turned into killing machines

In the armed group, Joseph, now 29, was pushed into a world of violence where the sanctity of life was trampled upon each day. “We were turned into killing machines,” he says. “They stripped us of our humanity, replaced it with hatred and fear.”

The jungle became his classroom, its dense foliage a cruel irony to the innocence stolen from him. He learned the grim curriculum of war: how to handle weapons, how to carry food and ammunition, how to survive in the harshest conditions, and, most chillingly, how to kill.

“In the disorganised army, children or young people are considered stronger than adults. As child soldiers, we suffered a lot. Apart from fighting, we were given hard tasks to handle, such as cooking, looking for food, and carrying and using heavy weaponry,” he says.

The physical toll was immense. Hunger gnawed at his insides, and exhaustion was a constant companion. Yet, the psychological scars ran deeper. The atrocities he witnessed, the acts he was forced to commit, would haunt him for years.

Trying to escape

One night, he remembers, his voice trembling slightly, he and other child soldiers were ordered to attack villages and fight. “Human life has no meaning for the rebels. We were always forced to commit all kinds of atrocities as rebel leaders could drug us all day long to push us to commit inhumane acts.”

For Joseph, the six years in the jungles are a nightmare that never leaves him. “Life was hard in the jungle and we lived in fear of death. Each day for us was a gamble,” he says.

Joseph was lucky to escape along with a few other child soldiers. It was not easy. For a long time, escaping was a distant dream that he could never discuss with his fellow child soldiers in daylight. But one day, Joseph and nine of his comrades had had enough of the bad life in the jungles.

“It was a perilous journey; we were afraid of being recaptured and facing penalties that could result in death, but we were determined. Of course, some of us died along the journey, but I was lucky to make it through,” he says.

He escaped, he says, by God’s grace. “We were 10 people who tried to escape, but six of us were mercilessly shot and killed on our first attempt to escape,” he says, trying to hold back the tears.

Fighting for justice

One night, assisted by one of the veteran rebel fighters in the group, Joseph left the military base and reported to the demobilisation and reintegration centre that is managed by the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC in the French acronym).

After reintegration, Joseph resettled in Goma, where he decided to go back to school. As he had dropped out of secondary school, he had to complete two last years before he enrolled in university.

“I decided to return to school and catch up, because I lost some years in the jungles,” he says. “It was not easy to study with students who were much younger than me. Even at university, I am the oldest student.”

He plans to ensure that no child soldiers are recruited and that those involved previously face justice because “all these rebel leaders must one day answer for their actions before the competent courts and without complacency”.

Joseph says: “I dream big to live up to the greatness of this beautiful country. I aspire to use the skills acquired at university to be an agent of change. With my studies, I have a chance to help child soldiers who suffer in different armed groups,” adding that he hopes to one day become a prominent advocate or politician.

Education is the way to change

Joseph is grateful that he enrolled at the university. “Education is the key for me to become a lawyer. I would defend, not only child soldiers, but marginalised people,” he says. “I intend to ensure that the rights of all victims of war are restored, and that reparation follows. I believe I will have lived my life if I manage to make these changes in society.”

His dream is to see a pacified country and he is ready to contribute towards this. “I will do everything possible to ensure that the restoration of peace in my country is a reality, because today it is considered a myth by the majority of Congolese.”

*A pseudonym has been used to protect the student’s safety.