Violence in Congo still killing children -UNICEF

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) As many as 1,200 people die a day in violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and more than half of them are children, the United Nation's children's fund UNICEF said today.

More children under the age of five die in the war-battered African nation each year than do in China, which has a population 23 times larger, it said in a report.

''The Democratic Republic of Congo is thought to have the largest concentration of child soldiers in the world,'' said Martin Bell, the British former BBC war reporter who travelled to eastern Congo as a UNICEF ambassador earlier this year.

''At the height of the war, estimates suggested that as many as 30,000 children were fighting or living with armed forces or militia groups,'' he said in the report.

UNICEF said the death toll from the 1998-2003 war in Congo was greater than in any conflict since World War II. Some four million are thought to have died through violence, hunger and disease.

Bell said a July 30 election was a chance for the country to turn a corner.

''For the first time in over 40 years, the Congolese people will have a real choice at the polls and a real chance to end what is often called the ''First World War'' of Africa,'' he said.

President Joseph Kabila, who assumed power after his father was assassinated in 2001, is standing against 32 presidential challengers including former rebel leaders, while more than 9,000 candidates are contesting 500 national assembly seats.

REUTERS AB DS1245