Johann Hari: Distraught parents and terrified children

In the Congo, more than 70,000 children have been seized at gunpoint by militias in the past six years

Published: 24 May 2007

The pictures of a small, smiling Madeleine McCann that are plastered across Britain and Portugal today never fail to do it. They always give me a slap-in-the-face flashback to a place where it is not an exception to have your child stolen away - to abuse you can't stop imagining. No, it is an everyday event.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 70,000 children have been seized at gunpoint by militias in the past six years. Each one of those children is as terrified as Madeleine, and each one of their parents is as wrought and desperate as the McCanns. continue...