Armed and victimized: Congo's child soldiers

When Gabriel escaped from the rebel army in eastern Congo which had turned him into a killer, he was brought to a special center which helps child soldiers become children again. Here he was treated for post-traumatic stress, taught to set aside any loyalty to his former unit, and mixed with boys from enemy factions.

But he had no way of knowing he was about to meet a boy who had been trying to kill him. Like Gabriel – who'd been snatched from his classroom –  Pascal Kahombo was a village boy who lived with his family in poverty.

Pascal: My parents gave me everything they could. I loved to study, but they couldn't pay for me to go to school.

So at age thirteen, he says, he volunteered to join a local unit of the government's army on the promise he'd get 25 dollars a month.

Curry: Is that why you did it? Because you wanted the money?

Pascal: I wasn't really interested in the money. My family didn't have the means to send me to school so when I saw soldiers passing by, I thought, OK, maybe I can make something of myself as a soldier.

But he would never see any pay and immediately regretted his decision to sign up.

Pascal: When I enlisted, they ordered me to go on patrols, or guard different positions. Then they forced me to fight.

Curry: So you didn't have a choice?

Video   Covering the war in Eastern Congo Dateline producer Justin Balding talks about the horrors of the war in Eastern Congo. Dateline NBC

Pascal: If you refused, you would be beaten, then put in jail.

Curry: But you must have feared being on the front lines?

Pascal: I was very afraid. Sometimes five of my unit could be killed, sometimes we all made it through. Whatever happens, I never want to be a soldier again.  When I was fighting I killed soldiers. Not civilians but soldiers, our enemies. And when I think about the people I have killed, I usually ask myself, what will happen to me?

Curry: Do you know how many might have died because you fired, because you had no choice?

Pascal: I cannot remember.

Cannot remember because Pascal was in so many battles. He was on the front lines for four years, four years away from his family, his childhood lost to the war. friends lost in battle too.

When his army unit finally released him, he was brought to the same center as Gabriel. The boys struck up a friendship after they learned they were from neighboring villages, and bonded over their experiences of war. But as they pieced together their lives as soldiers, they came to a realization almost too hard to comprehend. They had been fighting on opposing sides in the same battles...at the same times, in the same places. They were sure they had been fighting each other...pulled the triggers of their automatic weapons as they faced off.

Pascal: It is possible that I killed Gabriel's friends, and when he was shooting in my direction, that he killed my friends.

But Gabriel and Pascal did not seek revenge for what might have happened in the heat of battle. They know they are lucky to have survived.

Curry: How typical are these two boys?

Pernille: Unfortunately their stories are extremely typical.

Pernille Ironside is a child protection specialist for the U.N. in Congo and helps fund the center where the boys are cared for.

Pernille: More than thirty thousand kids have come out of various militia groups and armed forces since 2004. However, they're still being recruited.

Curry: People come to their houses and take the kids?

Pernille: Absolutely. Then they're put on the front lines and they hardly know even how to hold a weapon after only a few weeks of training. They've lost their childhood, they've been made to suffer such brutality.

Curry: Do you fear some of these children will never be whole again?

Pernille: Whole is very relative in Congolese society. One thing I've learned from my time here is that these people are extremely resilient, despite what they've gone through.

Even Gabriel and Pascal.

Video   Warlord or liberator? NBC’s Ann Curry asks General Laurent Nkunda about his part in the ongoing war in Eastern Congo. Dateline NBC

Curry: Do you know they're going to be okay or does that remain to be seen?

Pernille: I'm confident that they will be okay.

Gabriel: We used to attack each other but now, we are on the same side in the same camp.

Curry: When you discovered that there were battles where you both were fighting for the other side of the enemy line at these battles, what did you think?

Pascal: I do not think anything bad about Gabriel. Whatever I have I share with him and whatever he has he shares with me. I think of him not only as my friend, but as my brother.

Since Pascal was recently reunited with his family, for now he is separated from his new brother. And while Gabriel remains in the center for child soldiers because it's too dangerous for him to return home, the boys have vowed to be lifelong friends.

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