THE DEVASTATING
BEWILDERED Jeremie Kayembe perches on a step, unable to comprehend the horrors of a war which has ravaged his body.
The poor lad has lost his mother, had one arm amputated after infection set in and could lose a leg too.
Seven-year-old Jeremie’s nightmare began as he and his mum hid out in a forest – fleeing rebel forces in the wartorn Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
An abscess on his arm turned septic. It was amputated when he and his pregnant mum Marie Ngalula, 43, finally made it to a refugee camp.
But a gaping wound on his buttock raises fears he will lose his right leg too.
Ngalula fell victim to malaria and died just a week after giving birth. So Jeremie’s father Mamba Celestin, 50, must raise his family alone.
He said: “My wife was pregnant but she had malaria. We went to a medical centre for her to give birth but it was too late to save her life.”
Jeremie is now among 400,000 refugee children facing starvation due to a famine sparked by war.
Last month the Sunday Mirror told how thousands of brainwashed youngsters were forced to fight.
Militia fed them drinks to “immortalise” them and made them wear skirts which they said could catch bullets and fire them back.
TURMOIL
Today the focus turns to the 1.4million refugees forced to flee their homes. We visited a Unicef centre where the line of sick and starving children beggars belief.
Tales of atrocities were hard to listen to – but vital to report so the world does not turn a blind eye to a nation in turmoil.
We saw three-year-old Christine Kamwanya, so frail she barely had the strength to cry.
Congolese military executed her father Daniel, 38, with a single bullet then shot dead her two sisters in front of her and their mother.
Like Jeremie, Christine had to hide out in the bush after she and her pregnant mother Rose Mbwaya, 31, escaped the slaughter.
Rose, who later gave birth to son Jean Kanyandu, now 16 months, sells water to eke out a living of one dollar a day – a mere 80p. It is barely enough to survive on.
The haunted mother told how soldiers had accused her family of being rebels. She said: “They screamed at us not to talk. They said if we spoke we would be killed. They made me watch as they killed my two daughters but they let me live.
“They used three bullets, one for my husband, one for each child.”
Emaciated Christine is 17.5lb – 11lb below weight.
Rose added: “She’s not getting better and I fear losing her too. I don’t know what to do with my life now. I have nowhere to go, no hope.”
Unicef says one in 10 children in the region die by the age of five. Half suffer malnutrition and stunted growth. It is a man-made famine, with rebels forcing stricken families to flee into the inhospitable forest.
By the time they are able to return they have missed several crop plantations, leaving no means to survive.
We are in the small town of Tshikaji, just outside Kananga, the Kasai province capital.
Behind the face of each refugee lies a horrific tale of violence.
Mimi Milolo, 39, watched as the pro-government Bana Mura group slaughtered her husband and two teenage daughters in Chihaba village. They were decapitated by militia wearing Bana Mura’s signature red bandanas.
Mimi fled with younger kids Elysee Bashala, five, and Jean Mbombo, three. She said: “I have not told my two children their sisters and their father were killed. It is too difficult.
“We heard that the militia were in a neighbouring village killing people. The same night they came and cut off my husband’s head. I saw it with my own eyes.
“My two eldest children were also killed. I picked up the two youngest and ran.”
Mimi spent six months fighting for survival in the bush. Elysee is desperately malnourished. She is