a report just out by the global ngu save
the children
says children as young as 11 are being
killed in mozambique's province of cabo
delgado
as a conflict there continues to
displace thousands families report
horrifying scenes of murder
and loved ones disappearing it's been
very difficult to get any information
out of the area due to the government's
restrictive information policy but
after months of waiting our
correspondent adrian krisch was
accredited
and has now sent us some rare insights
into the brutal situation
we are traveling to kirimba island where
the united nations world food
program is planning a food distribution
program
but our boat's journey ends at the
halfway point
the tide is going out so we have to
continue on foot
the area is dangerous on the close by
mainland there are still
regular attacks by islamist insurgents
we've been trekking about half an hour
now um unfortunately we don't know
really how far it is but
hopefully two hours so far the water has
been roughly
let's see how the rest continues
[Applause]
we've been on the road for three hours
through the sea
and the mangroves then we meet the first
locals
and finally we reach the remote island
which was attacked by terrorists last
year
they looted the village and murdered two
people
when we reached the food distribution
venue the local head of administration
tells us the terrorists also kidnapped
thirty children
olivier's sixteen-year-old daughter
moana rabo is one of the missing
children
she disappeared without a trace
these people are just evil they come
from far away take away our children
and don't even tell us why or what they
want i am sad i'm angry
i just don't understand
isa hamisi was there when monarch was
kidnapped
he almost ended up in the same situation
himself
they said we are taking you with us to
our camp we will train you and teach you
to shoot and make you a soldier
but five boys two girls and myself
managed to escape
on the way there
after they said they wanted to make the
boys into soldiers
what did they say to the girls they said
we will make them our wives
so far there has been no international
outcry because the news still hasn't got
out of the island without electricity or
a telephone network
almost one year on many residents live
in fear of another attack
not a single soldier has been stationed
here to protect them
up to now
joining me now is chance bricks he's
country director in mozambique with save
the children international
hello sir welcome to the program so you
just released very disturbing reports
from mozambique
particularly about the killing of
children in such gruesome manner what
are your major findings
yes well thank you micah um we're
finding that
children and their families are being
chased from their compounds chased from
their villages and
in many cases it's quite violent and in
some cases uh
even children are being killed and there
are even reports
of beheadings of children as young as 11
12 years old
it's really disturbing it sickens us to
our core because of course
children have no role in a conflict
they're innocent
and these stories just bring us to tears
it almost brought me to tears when i was
uh checking out the report but why do
you think
children are being targeted in such a
manner
well mozambique is a very very poor
country it's the eighth poorest country
in the world
and cabo delgado the northernmost
province is the poorest province in the
country and yet
there are tremendous resources there and
it's been
perhaps underdeveloped for for years and
so there is a sense that
some drivers of the conflict are about
development
but why target children we're just not
sure certainly
in other conflicts we've seen that
children are trainable children can be
obedient
children are easier to control and so in
some cases maybe
children are being targeted to join the
forces
and we know of stories of when they
refuse they are killed we know stories
of 10 children being killed altogether
because they refused
to join the insurgents well you see that
all parties to this conflict must ensure
that children are never targets
that's not unfortunately the case
because this is an insurgency and the
attackers don't play by the rules
how else can children be protected
well we're never going to abandon our
commitment to international
humanitarian law and what's happening
here is a tragedy and it's just
inconceivable
so we are calling on all parties to stop
the war on children whether it's
mozambique or yemen or nigeria we must
stop the war on children across the
world
having said that we do believe that
peace is possible and peace is what will
protect the children
the mozambican government has
demonstrated in the past a willingness
and ability to negotiate
with enemies and with opponents they
have signed peace deals and treaties
and we believe that that should be
possible in this conflict as well
you also talk about how there's hardly
enough resources available to support
the displaced children
how is there a way around that
well uh donor governments such as the
german government can and should provide
more resources
to help address the needs of 670 000
people who have been displaced and
that's one third of the province
the population of the province uh
there's tremendous needs for food for
shelter for schooling
uh and even for just basic needs like uh
female menstrual hygiene
and soap and toothpaste so there's a
real need for funding and we believe
that
even with all the the pressures of kobit
19 that the world can and should do more
okay now right before i let you go is
there anything
positive out of all that's been
happening so far
thank you well many families are
escaping to safety and we and other ngos
are able to provide them with services
we're
engaged in psycho social care because
they've gone through tremendous
trauma we're helping build classrooms to
make sure children can go back to school
we're providing food
and other resources but also sometimes
when children are fleeing their villages
it's at night and they get
off track and they get lost and so we
have many instances of children being
separated from their families for days
and days on end
and coming to to uh the towns and not
knowing how to find their parents
and we have a process for finding these
separated children and for
reuniting them with their families and
i'd like to tell you we recently
helped a young boy named sergio 11 years
old he was separated from the entire
family
but he could describe his mother and we
managed to find his mother's
neighbor's phone number and through that
we found the mother
after three months of being apart we
were able to reunite this family
hopefully more families can be reunited
chance bricks country director in
mozambique with save the children
international thanks for your insight
thanks so much
you