Children separated by violence in Congo

updated 5:35 p.m. ET Nov. 13, 2008

KIBATI, Congo - Rebecca Nyiringindi scanned the sprawling refugee camp in eastern Congo, searching for just one person among the thousands of hungry and homeless.

"My mother's name is Alphonsine," the 10-year-old said, speaking softly while sucking her thumb. "She's short. She's very dark."

Helped by returning aid workers, more than 150 children began searching for their parents Thursday in a camp in Kibati as soldiers and rebels guarded a tense front line just miles away, raising fears that fighting would resume in the fragile, mineral-rich region.

Some 70,000 refugees have fled to Kibati from surrounding towns since fighting in eastern Congo intensified in August, displacing at least 250,000 people despite the presence of the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world.

Agencies registering children
Aid agencies took advantage of a lull in fighting this week to return to camps near the front line and resume registering children who have been separated from their parents during the ongoing conflict in Congo's North Kivu province.

Some children are clearly traumatized by the separation. Zawadi Bunzigiye, 6, stared down at her grubby blue dress and said, in a voice barely above a whisper, "I'm afraid of bullets."

Many children fled with only the clothes on their backs.

When fighting erupted Oct. 27 in the rebel-controlled town of Kibumba, about 12 miles from the camp, Rebecca Nyiringindi fled on foot, accompanied only by the family's goat.

"But I lost it," she said. "It was a chocolate (colored) goat. It was a big goat."

She said her parents sent her to the camp, believing she'd be safer there.

"The military came in. I was afraid," she said. "I hid next to the radio tower. My parents said, 'Go, we'll come after you.' I went along the road and I didn't see them."

Drunk soldiers rape girls
But the camp is no place for children. There are no schools. Children run underfoot all day, dodging waves of new arrivals. At night, residents say in whispers, drunk soldiers come through the camp, raping women and girls.

Neema Maombi, 8, fled the northern town of Nyanzale, about 60 miles from the provincial capital of Goma, in early September with her sister Solange, 16. Her account of being caught in this complicated conflict is simple.

"I heard bullets," she said. "I ran."

When asked to describe her parents, she said, "My mother is small. My father is short.

"My mother makes good food, like potatoes and beans," she added with a shy smile. "She makes banana beer."

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