( CNN ) -- Scores of child soldiers , some of them as young as eight years old , have been rescued from an armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo , the U.N. mission in the African nation said . The 82 children , 13 of them girls , were recovered since Sunday from the Mayi Mayi Bakata Katanga armed group in the southeastern Katanga province , MONUSCO said Friday in a statement . The children , aged up to 17 years , had reportedly been recruited by the armed group within the past six months , it said . Forty of them have been reunited with their parents . The others are being cared for until they can be returned home , the statement said . `` We are extremely concerned by continued reports of active recruitment by Mayi Mayi Bakata Katanga and other armed groups in eastern DRC , '' said MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler . `` Children face unacceptable risks when they are recruited for military purposes . The recruitment of children , particularly those under 15 years of age , could constitute a war crime and those responsible must be held to account . '' Child protection agencies in the province orchestrated the rescues , MONUSCO said . Since the start of the year , 163 children , including 22 girls , have been rescued from Mayi Mayi Bakata Katanga by MONUSCO and child protection workers , the statement said . The country 's mineral-rich eastern part is at the epicenter of a political and ethnic conflict involving its neighbors to the east , Uganda and Rwanda , and has long been embroiled in violence . The region 's humanitarian crisis involves 2.6 million internally displaced people , the United Nations says , with 6.4 million people in need of food and emergency aid . Nearly 20,000 troops are deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the MONUSCO peacekeeping force .
Two child soldiers have been rescued from an armed group , U.N mission says . The girls were among the children rescued from the Mayi Mayi Bakata Katanga . The children range from 8 to 17 years in age ; 40 have been reunited with their parents . The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a long history of violence .