Child Soldiers in Africa

1. Child Soldiers in Africa http://www.caritas.org.au/images/newsroom/newsfromthefield/childsoldiers_1.jpg

2. Child Soldiers • Today, 300,000 children serve under government forces. • Child soldiers vary from 7-18 years of age. • If the child is poor, separated from their family, have a limited education, or live in a combat zone they are more likely to become a child soldier. • Girls as well as boys are child soldiers. www.hrw.org

3. Girls as well as boys are child soldiers. • In some cases Girls are raped or given to military commanders as wives. • Children are vulnerable to the recruitment because they are easily manipulated. • Once recruited the children serve as cooks, spies, messengers, guards, combat fighters, and some are even drawn into suicide missions. web.mit.edu

4. Female soldiers are captured for many reasons. Some female soldiers are made to be ‘wives’ of military officers. • Girls who refuse to become ‘wives’ are killed in front of other girls in order to make them into an example. • Girls are also used in the abduction of more children. • “I don’t know how many people had sex with me. A man would come, then another and another. You couldn’t refuse… they said they’d kill you if you ran away.” www.npr.org

5. "The army was a nightmare. We suffered greatly from the cruel treatment we received. We were constantly beaten, mostly for no reason at all, just to keep us in a state of terror. I still have a scar on my lip and sharp pains in my stomach from being brutally kicked by the older soldiers. The food was scarce, and they made us walk with heavy loads, much too heavy for our small and malnourished bodies. They forced me to learn how to fight the enemy, in a war that I didn't understand why was being fought." - Emilio, recruited by the Guatemalan army at age 14 • The use of child soldiers have been reported in 33 different armed forces from every region around the world. • Some of these countries include: Columbia, Mexico, Peru, Russian Fed, Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many more. web.mit.edu

6. Orphan children are the best choice for enrollment in military services. • These children are the most emotionally insecure, thus they can be easily manipulated into killing and have no reason for escape. • Because the children have no family members, they have no one to run back to. • Oftentimes, the children are fighting because they know that death in battle would be better than living with the military commanders. • “I was a good soldier, and was afraid of nothing, during combat. All I knew was that death would free me from my nightmare.” www.wcc-coe.org

7. “Former child soldiers say they were forcibly injected with cocaine before being sent into battle.” BBC “Brutal child army grows up” May 10, 2000 www.jesref.org

8. Although the use of child soldiers is spread throughout Africa, Sierra Leone has the highest number of children fighting in their civil war. • It is estimated that 4,500 children fought on either side of the war (either the government group or the Revolutionary United Front.) • A French newspaper described the schedule of some of the torture of the child soldiers, saying "at 2 p.m., they gouge out two eyes, at 3 p.m., they cut off one hand, at 4 p.m., they cut off two hands, at 5 p.m., they cut off one foot and ... at 7 p.m. it is the death which falls down." scn-hope.hp.infoseek.co.jp

9. Children are targeted because of their emotional ignorance. • The children are easily “brain-washed” into doing what the commanders want. • The military commanders force the children to take drugs such as marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine, or their own “homemade” drugs. • Under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the children become fearless. • The children are trained to feel no remorse toward death and murder. www.caritas.org.au

10. In 2003, 30% of all of the members of the Congolese militia were children. • While most of the children were teens, some were found to be as young as seven years old. • Most child soldiers are found in Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. • Although the use of child soldiers is spread throughout Africa, Sierra Leone has the highest number of children fighting in their civil war. • It is estimated that 4,500 children fought on either side of the war (either the government group or the Revolutionary United Front.) www.iansa.org

11. the United Nations has banned the use of children as soldiers, but this has had little positive effect • in northern Uganda 30,000 children have been abducted in the past 18 years. • Many families lose more children through abduction, when the village is attacked and destroyed, families houses burned, parents killed, and harvests ravaged to an army of children known as The Lord’s Resistance Army • Joseph Kony, a former altar boy, leads this brutal, inhumane army • Joseph travels with his army of children going from schools to villages to steal more recruits www.warchild.org.uk

12. Many children join the groups thinking the groups will offer food and security. • Others are forcibly recruited by “press gangs.” • Some children are forced to perform atrocities on their family so they are unable to return. • “[RENAMO soldiers] placed my family in the middle of the village and said that they would kill us all because my father was a teacher. They handed me a bayonet and ordered me to kill my father. I did not want to and started to cry…” www.child-soldier.org

13. Technological advances contribute to increase of use of child soldiers. • Many children end up on the streets and involved in crime. • Some children are drawn back into armed forces. • Many former child soldiers have no access to education. • Many children also have no hope of reunification with their families. scn-hope.hp.infoseek.co.jp

14. “Joseph Kony claims to want to make Uganda into a state based on the Ten Commandments, but he has broken every one of them. Today no one thinks Kony and his movement represents a loving God and Christianity or Islam, but all know it is about demonic control of children, boys and girls, young men and women, doing the bidding of a crazy man.”-http://kabiza.com/Lira-Children-Kony-Rebels.htm Many of the leaders in his army were abducted 10 or 12 years ago, but have known nothing else but death and destruction. http://picturenet.co.za/gallery/giacomo/co251.jpg

15. Works Cited Stohl, Rachel- Under the Gun- African Security Review- Vol. 11- No. 3- 2002- pp 2 http://www.humanrightswatch.org/campaigns/crp/facts.htm Onishi, Norimitsu- Children of War in Sierra Leone Try to Start Over- New York Times- New York – May 2002 & Skinner, Elliott- Child Soldier in Africa- International Journal on World Peace- June 1999- pp 4-8 & Richards, Paul- Fighting for the Rain Forest- Oxford- UK- 1996- pp 7 & 28-29 & Maier, Karl- Into the House of the Ancestors- John Wiley & Sons- New York- 1998- pp 134 Sebelebele, Matome- Child Soldiers Remain a Challenge for African Union- African News Service- July 2002- pp 1-2 & US Commits $13 million to Help Former Child Soldiers- African News Service- May 2003- pp 1 @ www.comtexnews.com & Thompson, Carol- Beyond Civil Society- Review of African Political Economy- London- Jun 1999- Vol.26- Issue 80- pp 1-3 & Maier, Karl- Into the House of the Ancestors- John Wiley & Sons- New York- 1998- pp 131 http://www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/global/africa/sandrarocha/childsoldiers/ChildSoldiers.htm#_ftn21

16. Maier, Karl- Into the House of the Ancestors- John Wiley & Sons- New York- 1998- pp 132 & Facts about Child Soldiers- Human Rights Watch- 2004 Mazurana, Dyan & McKay, Susan- Child Soldiers: What about the girls?- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists- Sep/Oct 2001 @ www.thebulletin.org/issues/2001/so01/so01mazurana.html & Facts about Child Soldiers- Human Rights Watch- 2004 @ http://www.humanrightswatch.org/campaigns/crp/facts.htm & More than 120,000 Child Soldiers Fighting in Africa- Human Rights Watch- April 1999 @ http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/apr/cs0419.htmChildhood denied: child soldiers in Africa- Amnesty International @ http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/childsoldiers-africanchild-engFacts about Child Soldiers- Human Rights Watch- 2004 @ http://www.humanrightswatch.org/campaigns/crp/facts.htm & Maier, Karl- Into the House of the Ancestors- John Wiley & Sons- New York- 1998- pp 134 & Thompson, Carol- Beyond Civil Society- Review of African Political Economy- London- Jun 1999- Vol.26- Issue 80- pp 1-3 Stohl, Rachel- Under the Gun- African Security Review- Vol. 11- No. 3- 2002- pp 2