Child soldiers are still recruited for armed conflicts in over 12 countries, stated Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a new report on the period from October 2006 to August 2007, asking for further measures to fight this scourge. This practice is going on in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. The positive aspect is that there were no new cases of recruitment in the Ivory Coast, while "measures were taken to identify, release and rehabilitate recruited children". On the other hand, the Karuna faction is said to have kidnapped and recruited children at the refugee camps in Sri Lanka, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo children were recruited from the camps in North Kivu. Furthermore, 60% of the cases of sex violence taking place in Kisangani, in the North of the Democratic Republic of Congo, concern victims aging from 11 to 17. “It is necessary that the authors of rapes and other sex violence causing consequences in the long run, devastating consequences for the victims, are prosecuted and punished in accordance with the seriousness of such crimes”, wrote Ban. Another preoccupation concerns the quick increase in the number of “systematic and deliberate attacks against schools, teachers and educational structures”, above all, in Afghanistan and Iraq. ” ” ” “
