Location of these Child Soldiers

Reports of Child Soldier Use Since 2010

 "ISIS Child Soldiers: What Happens When They Grow Up? - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 May 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. 

     Around the globe, "Human Rights Watch has documented the recruitment of children to be involved in armed conflict as child soldiers." (1) Today, child soldiers are fighting in at least "fourteen countries." (1) A few examples of this are the following:

Afghanistan – Terrorist groups, including the Taliban use children as fighters, including in suicide attacks. In addition, most shockingly there is also the "recruitment of children by the Afghan National Police." (1)

Burma – Thousands of boys serve in Burma’s national army where children as young as 11 are forcibly recruited off the streets and sent into combat operations. (1)

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – Children serve in the government armed forces as well as various rebel forces. At the height of DRC’s war, "the UN estimated that more than 30,000 boys and girls were fighting with various parties to the conflict." (1) "The Lord’s Resistance Army also abducts children in northeastern Congo where they use both boys and girls as fighters, and girls as sex slaves." (1)

Iraq –  "Al-Qaeda recruits children to spy, scout, transport military supplies, plant explosive devices, and actively participate in attacks against security forces and civilians, including suicide attacks." (1)

Somalia – The Islamist armed group al-Shabaab forcibly recruits children as young as 10. "They often abduct them from their homes or schools." (1) Some are influenced or persuaded  into becoming suicide bombers. Children also serve in Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces demonstrating how the government reestablishes this idea of child soldier rather than making an end to it.

Sources:

 "Child Soldiers Worldwide." Human Rights Watch. 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. (1) 

Child Recruitment

Street Child in Burundi

 "Understanding Poverty and How You Can Make a Difference." Understanding Poverty and How You Can Make a Difference. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. 

    Children are considered an "economically efficient alternative to adult combatants." (1) They are easy to brainwash and are good fighters because they have not yet developed a concept of death.

       In some situations children are forcibly recruited as a result of "abduction or severely beaten into submission." (2) However, although there is no doubt that groups continue to abduct, there are other factors that result in children becoming involved in armed conflict.

     Poverty can be an essential factor for a child to join. For some children "joining armed groups ensures one meal which is why some parents give their children to the movement in the hope that they will be fed and housed." (1)

      Discrimination is also a key factor. Ethnic, tribal and religious identity are continuously linked to the cruelty of discrimination."When children witness the killing, humiliation of their parents and watch their sisters being raped, they might join out of a feeling of revenge." (1) In other words, these children at such young ages have been subjected to the experience of violence which leads to this emotional trigger of revenge. "Many children are also requested by their families and communities to play their part in the defense of the community." (1) This demonstrates a sense of nationalism that derives from these children at such a young age; to feel they have to put themselves in danger for the protection of their country.

       Therefore children are recruited by forceful enlisting by armed groups, but also children are in a sense "vulnerable." The countries where child soldiers are in high numbers, are mostly third world countries where living conditions could be simply characterized by the word 'suffering'. These children then are recruited because they believe a group will "offer income, food or security." (2)

Sources:

 "Root Causes of Child Recruitment | United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict." United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. (1)

 "About the Issues:." Child Soldiers International. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. (2)

Who are Child Soldiers? Why are They Used on the Battlefield?

As the US moved to block military assistance to five nations including three in Africa, over their use of child soldiers in armed conflicts.; these child soldiers (maybe Rwandan) are spotted at Kanyabayonga in eastern Congo. 

 ("US Sanctions Five Nations Over Child Soldiers." VOA. Voice of America, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.)

      The internationally agreed definition for a child soldier is any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity. (Paris Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups, 2007.) In simple interpretation, a child soldier is an individual under the age of 18 who part take in any relation to war forcefully by an armed force.
     The military use of children takes a variety of forms. Children can take a direct face to face hostile encounter with war as child soldiers, "they can be used as porters, spies, messengers, lookouts or they can be used as human shield and/or in propaganda." (1)
    Throughout previous history, children have been involved in military campaigns even when practices went directly against cultural morals. "In WWW1, in Great Britain 250,000 boys under the age of 19 joined the army and it progressed greatly in WW2 as child soldiers fought in the Warsaw Uprising, in the Jewish resistance and in the Soviet Army." (1) You would think that as our world has evolved immensely throughout time that this practice against cultural morals would fade away. However, this is not the case as child soldiers still exist in third world countries. "Since 2000, the participation of child soldiers has been reported in most armed conflicts and in almost every region of the world. Although there are no exact figures, tens of thousands of children under the age of 18 continue to serve in government forces or armed opposition groups. Some of those involved in armed conflict are under 10 years old." (2)

Sources:

"About the Issues:." Child Soldiers International. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. (1)

"Military Use of Children." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. (2)

Reasons for My Interest in the Gruesome Stories of Children Soldiers Worldwide

A young fighter from the Al-Shabaab militia shows his wounded hand after battling Somali government forces in Mogadishu in July 2009.

( "The Truth about Child Soldiers (Opinion) - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.) 

     Throughout history not only minorities have been subjected to oppression by either the government or other dominant groups in society, but children have been placed in these circumstances also. In textbooks and most written works, children suffering are not magnified and recognized which is ironic since children are suppose to be the future of a nation. Therefore, the stories of those children I would like to be their voice, to get their stories like Olaudah Equiano and others. Most economic crashes and times of failure are expressed through the voice of scholars and individuals of prestige, but a child’s perspective is somehow ignored. For example, child labor during the Industrial Revolution where greed for power and wealth were the origins of this oppression over children; the detailed stories of this injustice were ignored in my perspective. In this blog I wish to share with you the stories of children in the bloodshed and gruesome aspects of war.