Child Soldiers
According to Amnesty International, "an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than thirty different countries on nearly every continent. While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as seven years old." Although a number of international laws specifically prohibit child conscription, nearly 200,000 children in Africa are believed to be involved in hostilities. Many come from impoverished families where the army may be their only means of survival. The links below shed light on this problem as well as the many challenges faced in rehabilitating these children.
Learn about the many underlying societal causes of child conscription around the world.
"I know everything one can know about the wasting of youth, about the ways boys can be used. Of those boys with whom I walked, about half became soldiers eventually. And were they willing? Only a few. They were twelve, thirteen years old, little more, when they were conscripted. . . These boys would trek over the hill to Bonga, the training camp, and that was the last we would see of them." (p. 49)
Read some first hand accounts of child soldiers.
Get the facts.
Ann O'Neill
Jeff Koinange
Discover some of the challenges for reintegrating child soldiers.
Learn how child soldiers are being rehabilitated.
Listen to an interview with Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier who now lives in the United States.