Child Soldiers

Summary: Using children under the age of eighteen (and sometimes as young as nine) is a commonplace feature of some terrorist/rebel movements, particularly in Africa, the Asian subcontinent, and South America. Worldwide, an estimated 300,000 children are thought to be child soldiers. Many are forcibly conscripted and then forced to engage in heinous acts that make reintegration into their societies difficult or impossible. More than 170 countries have signed a United Nations protocol titled Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) barring the use of soldiers under eighteen, although the state armed forces of some nations continue to violate its terms. UNICEF has taken the lead in combating the phenomenon and tracked allegations of using child soldiers.

Using under-age people as combatants—the United Nations defines a child soldier as a combatant under age eighteen—is a common feature of insurgent forces and terrorist/guerrilla warfare. Psychologists agree that children, especially those as young as ten or in their early teens, are prone to psychological manipulation that can turn them into particularly vicious killers in guerrilla warfare. Even after hostilities cease or children are rescued from involuntary service, former child soldiers may suffer psychological trauma and alienation from their families and societies.

Most child soldiers are between ages fourteen and eighteen, although children as young as nine are sometimes involved. Child soldiers are found in various groups: government-backed paramilitary units, militias, self-defense forces, rebel groups fighting central governments, and ethnic, religious, or clan/tribal-based groups. State armies that use people under the age of eighteen as soldiers are also labeled as using child soldiers.

The number of child soldiers worldwide is difficult to pinpoint, but international aid agencies report the best-known estimates. The United Nations estimated in 2015 that 300,000 children are fighting as child-soldiers in over twenty countries. The reports also noted that 40 percent of these soldiers are girls. About one-third of child soldiers are thought to be in Africa, with others found in Asia and South America. At times, terrorist groups in the Middle East and Europe have also used under-eighteen fighters. Between 2005 and 2022, according to UN estimates, more than 100,000 children were recruited globally for use in armed conflict.

A UNICEF report on child soldiers noted, "Children are often terrorized into obedience, consistently made to fear for their lives and well-being. They quickly recognize that absolute obedience is the only means to ensure survival. Sometimes, they are compelled to participate in killing other children or family members because it is understood by these groups that there is 'no way back home' for children after they have committed such crimes."

The notion of "absolute obedience" can lead children to commit horrific crimes, such as murdering family members or residents of their village. Such crimes may result in long-term alienation of these children from other family members or villagers, blocking the potential for reintegration into society if and when they are rescued from what began as involuntary servitude as combatants.

Child soldiers play a variety of roles in the organizations they serve. In the most extreme cases, they play the same role as adult soldiers: attack and kill perceived enemies, who in cases of ethnic or political warfare may include civilians. Children are also used as spies, porters, servants, sexual objects, or for laying/clearing landmines.

The process by which children become combatants varies. Sometimes, they are kidnapped from their villages and forced into servitude. In other cases, they are recruited from schools. Some children are sold into servitude by financially desperate families. The recruitment process helps explain another aspect of child soldiers: in most cases, they appear in poor, rural areas. Child soldiers include both males and females, with girls often becoming victims of sexual exploitation.

Efforts to end the exploitation of children as soldiers have primarily focused on fighting the groups that employ them, and a UN-sponsored treaty—the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, dated May 25, 2000. In its essence, the protocol sets eighteen as the minimum age for recruiting or accepting individuals in a nation's armed forces unless a qualification is noted at the time of signing. The United States qualified its signature by noting that the US armed forces accept volunteers as young as seventeen. Nearly 180 countries signed and ratified the protocol. A few countries signed the protocol, but have not ratified it.

Following is a summary of countries cited by UNICEF as being sites where children are used as combatants:

Afghanistan: Following the 2021 US military withdrawal, the Taliban continued to use children to spy, plant or find IEDs, and serve in combat roles. The Taliban chose to end investigations into child trafficking and recruiting, however invesitgations resumed in January of 2022. A 2023 report by the United Nations noted the recruitment of children for combat in the nation, with the youngest reported to be twelve. Recruited children were used by the Taliban and other forces for combat, including in suicide attacks.

Burundi: The rebel group Forces Nationales pour la Libération (FNL/Agathon Rwasa) and government agencies are accused of using children as combatants and for other duties. From November 2005 to July 2006, 381 cases of detained children were reported to the United Nations Operation in Burundi, roughly divided between the rebels and the government. A cease-fire between rebels and police was signed in September 2006, although several hundred under eighteen child soldiers are still thought to be used by rebel forces. By the mid-2010s, UNICEF attempted to aid in integrating the country's former child soldiers into society, but further conflict in the region increased recruitment by the 2020s.

Chad: As the conflict in neighboring Darfur appears to spread into Chad, so does the use of child soldiers (including involuntary "recruitment") by the anti-government rebel forces of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Precise numbers are unavailable. Beginning in the early 2010s, Boko Haram rapidly recruited and trained young children in the Lake Chad Basin. By 2019, more than 1,400 new child soldiers had been recruited and trained, according to the UN. In 2022 alone, more than 200 boys graduated from the terrorist group's training school.

Colombia: UNICEF reports "some progress" in ending the recruitment and use of children by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP). UNICEF reports the UN country team in Colombia also believes children serve in the rebel Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), as well as in right-wing armed militias such as Autodefensas Campesinas del Casanare and Frente Cacique Pipinta. Overall, UNICEF stated, "There has been a marked decrease in the number of child abductions compared with recent years…." Despite this positive turn, more than 93,000 children were verified as recruited child soldiers between 2003 and 2020.

Côte d'Ivoire: Children are used by the rebel group Forces Nouvelles, and by militias linked to the governing party, including the Front de Libération du Grand Ouest (FLGO), the Mouvement Ivoirien de Libération Ouest de Côte d'Ivoire (MILOCI), Alliance Patriotique de l'Ethnie Wé (APWé), and the Union Patriotique de Résistance du Grand Ouest (UPRGO). UNICEF reports no evidence that the government's armed forces use children.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Prolonged civil conflict in Congo has resulted in a potpourri of government forces and rebel groups reported to have used, or still using, child soldiers. A joint commission launched by UNICEF, the International Labor Organization, and non-government organizations reported that as of 30 May 2006, it had rescued 18,524 children from the armed forces and non-government armed groups. Reports in April 2006 said some government armed forces and the pro-government militia, Civil Defense Forces (CDF) used children under 18. On Aug. 2, 2007, a leader of CDF, Allieu Kondewa, was convicted of conscripting child soldiers in 1991-2002. In 2006, the International Criminal Court accused Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, former Union des Patriote Congolais (UPC) leader, of "conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years." He was brought to the Hague for trial, having earlier been arrested by Congo officials. Also in 2006, Jean Pierre Biyoyo of "Mudundu 40" was sentenced to five years in jail for the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of children and child recruitment; he escaped prison. Repeated reports of Congolese refugee children in Rwanda being recruited by the former Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Goma (RCD/G) and groups loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to fight in eastern Congo.

Liberia: Between 2004 and 2005, a United Nations program "demobilized" 10,963 child soldiers. UN programs continue to work to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers into Liberian society. The inauguration of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in January 2006 coincided with the end of prolonged civil conflict in Liberia. The former Liberian leader, President Charles Taylor, awaits trial in the Hague on a variety of charges, including the use of child soldiers.

Myanmar: UNICEF states that "there are reliable reports of continued forcible recruitment and training of children for the government armed forces (Tatmadaw Kyi) and non-state armed groups," including UN teams inside Myanmar, who have been able to verify the allegations. The UN has verified the recruitment of children as young as twelve. Officially, Myanmar sets eighteen as the minimum age for volunteers in the armed forces.

Nepal: UNICEF reports "increasingly strong evidence" of child soldiers fighting in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) as combatants, informants, and organizers to recruit other children under eighteen to CPN-M activities. A negotiated cease-fire between the government and CPN-M in April 2006 and subsequent government reorganization halted military actions in Nepal.

Philippines: The New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is reported by UNICEF to recruit children despite a party policy to the contrary. The Abu Sayyaf Group Islamist rebel groups are reported to continue to recruit children in the early twenty-first century, as does the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Somalia: UNICEF reports "numerous cases of children being recruited by force by elements of Union of the Islamic Courts (ICU) and a coalition of warlords calling themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter Terrorism (ARPCT)" in Somalia's civil war. The UN stated ARPCT actively recruited "street children" for its militia, while the ICU has recruited children from madrassas (religious schools), promising spiritual rewards for martyrdom. Additionally, the UN reports a large number of child recruitments by Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group in the country, which is different from ARPCT.

Sri Lanka: The separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has long been accused of forcibly recruiting children. UNICEF received reports of names of over 500 children recruited by LTTE between November 2005 and September 2006, a figure thought to represent about one-third of the child soldiers recruited by LTTE in that period. Based on cases reported to UNICEF, the average age of child recruits was sixteen. About one-third were girls. In some districts, school enrollment was reported to have dropped because of extensive recruitment. A break-away faction of LTTE, the Karuna Group, has also been accused of extensively aborting children to swell its ranks.

Sudan: Two largely separate conflicts—in the south and in Darfur—both resulted in reports of child soldier recruitment. In the south, the official Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have reportedly used soldiers under age eighteen, as have pro-government militias. The notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of neighboring Uganda took refuge in Sudan.

Uganda: The rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is accused of kidnapping children for use as soldiers and sex slaves. Since January 2005, the number of abductions by LRA was 1,500, but by the early 2020s, the estimate was thousands higher. In October 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for LRA leader Joseph Kony and four others for various crimes, including the forced recruitment of children.

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