Where in Africa do they have child soldiers?
As of 2017, the UN listed that seven out of fourteen countries recruiting and using child soldiers in state forces or armed groups were in Africa: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan.
Where are child soldiers mostly found?
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria and Yemen currently have the largest number of child soldiers. 3. Children are not only recruited by armed forces and groups as fighters. They are also used as informants, looters, messengers, spies and as domestic or sexual slaves.
Where do most child soldiers fight?
The UN has identified 14 countries where children have been widely used as soldiers. These countries are Afghanistan, Colombia, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
How many African child soldiers are there?
A new report on child soldiers in Africa has found that more than 120,000 children under 18 years of age are being used as soldiers across the continent. Some of these children are no more than 7 years of age.
How common are child soldiers in Africa?
How many child soldiers are in Africa?
A recent UN report verified that 8,521 children were used as soldiers in 2020, while another 2,674 children were killed and 5,748 injured in various conflicts. According to some estimates, up to 40% of child soldiers are in Africa.
How did child soldiers start?
The first modern use of child soldiers in the region was actually during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Iranian law, based on the Koranic sharia, had forbid the recruitment of children under 16 into the armed forces.
What roles do child soldiers have?
Child soldiers are boys and girls who are often abducted and used as combatants, forced to act as human shields or conduct executions, deployed as suicide bombers, or used to make or transport explosives. Other roles include working as guards, spies, messengers, porters, cooks or domestic servants.
How old was the youngest child soldier?
The LRA also holds the ignoble record for having the world’s youngest reported armed combatant, age 5. The areas where child soldiers have been present read like a master list of the continent’s worst zones of violence.