The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today, Friday, that rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo strapped explosives around two infant twin girls to set a trap for security forces, an incident among many that shows the rising violence against children there.
The organization reported that the infants (one year old) were found in a village in the northern Kivu region, where an armed group known as the Allied Democratic Forces has intensified its bomb attacks, and mine experts successfully dismantled the explosives without them detonating.

UNICEF's representative in the Congo, Grant Lee, explained at a press conference in Geneva that the intention was "for the (explosives) to detonate upon the arrival of police or Congolese army forces."

He added: "Children are being raped and killed every day, as armed groups abduct, recruit, and exploit them, and we know that the reports we have are not many compared to the reality on the ground."

The infants are recovering from malnutrition at a United Nations center before being placed in a care home, after their parents were killed in an attack believed to have been carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces.

Lee stated that although they are recovering well from malnutrition, the psychological scars may last a lifetime, adding: "You cannot imagine what they have been through."

It is worth noting that the United Nations has said that the violence in the Congo has resulted in one of the worst and longest humanitarian emergencies in the world, as more than 27 million people face food shortages, and nearly 5.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Over 2.8 million children bear the brunt of this crisis.