Child Soldiers

I recently read the book A long way gone about Ishmael Beah, who became an unwilling child soldier during civil war in Sierra Leone. The story is based on a ture story and let me thought about child soldiers in general. I think that this topic is often swept under the map and in generelly we don't know a lot about child soldiers, that's why I've made a little research and want to share the information with you.

A child soldier is considered as any person below the age of 18, who is a member of or attached to government armed forces or any other regular or irregular armed force or armed political group, whether or not an armed conflict exists.

Like other, normal soldiers, child soldiers participate in combat, lay mines, scout, spy, act as decoys and so on. Besides they are often subjected to sexual slavery or other forms of sexual abuse.

At a rough estimate about 300 000 children suffer from wars and violence. Some are victims of the violence; others are forced to participate or have to protect themselves to survive.

Especially in areas where civil war or other conflicts rule the country, children are more likely to join the army, to get the feeling of security. For many children their combat group replaces their families and gives them a little sense of togetherness back.

Some children join the soldiers, because it is their only alternative to extreme poverty, insecurity others are press-ganged, they are manipulated or abducted and forced to serve a combat group.

In some cases children get alcohol or other drugs to reduce their fear of military actions. If they refuse to execute an order, they are punished or killed in front of the others.

Some children are successful by fleeing from the group; others are lucky and are discharged if their work is no longer needed. Afterwards the children take part in programs which help them to demobilize and reintegrate age. It could last for ages till a former child soldier is able to live his normal life again and to reintegrate in society again.

I hoped that with this post, I could make you a little bit more aware of what's going on in other parts of the world. In my opinion it is important to grapple with such topics and maybe try to find a way to make a contribution for a better world.