Source: Save The Children
Junior*
Twice, I went into battle against other armed groups. I couldn’t handle this violence and these atrocities. Luckily for me, I made it out alive.”
Junior*, now 17, experienced a difficult childhood. At the age of 12, he was separated from his parents. Then in 2018, friends encouraged Junior* to join an armed group to defend his community, but things didn’t turn out how he planned. He was taught how to use a firearm and faced the violence of conflict first-hand.
After eight months, Junior* was freed from the armed group by a project implemented by a Save the Children partner organisation.
Junior* hopes that all children trapped in armed groups will be freed. He believes that all children have the right to reclaim their childhood.
Junior*, 17, spent eight months as a child soldier in an armed group in Eastern DRC in 2018. Photo: Save the Children / Hugh Kinsella Cunningham.
Junior*, 17, spent eight months as a child soldier in an armed group in Eastern DRC in 2018. Photo: Save the Children / Hugh Kinsella Cunningham.
