Children Soldiers: Causes Of Child Soldiers In Africa

They include messengers, porters, spies, and sex slaves. So great is the diversity of tasks that many advocates now prefer the less punchy but more accurate term, children associated with fighting forces.” (Gates para 5) Why should an undereducated child who hasn’t committed any crimes besides being involved in a war that they didn’t want to fight be prosecuted for anything. Another example of how some child soldiers aren’t killers comes from an article titled “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety.” this article says that not all child soldiers murder but some cook or as said in the article “Most girls are forcibly abducted and given roles as cooks, porters, spies, “wives”, and in combat, says Susan McKay of the University of Wyoming, who has interviewed girl soldiers throughout central Africa.” (Leahy para 10) clearly not all children in combat have committed crimes but are rather victims and shouldn’t be prosecuted for being in the military but should be helped and given a second chance at their

The use of child soldiers have become a normal contribution to armies, especially in countries such as Africa. Although, countries such as Afghanistan, India, and Libya have been using child soldiers since 2011. According to “Children in Conflict: Child Soldiers,” there has been 36 countries involved since 1998. Something needs to be done about this issue due to the fact that thousands of

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

The children in the war were in a kill or be killed situation. The children didn’t have a choice except to follow orders from their commanders or they would get killed. They had to fight and kill others to stay alive. A quote from the article “Child Soldiers” (To what extent should child soldiers be held accountable for their crimes?) states, “Furthermore, many children join without carefully thinking through their decision. At the time they might believe that recruiting would lead to a safer life as necessities such as food, water and shelter would be available; actually fighting in war would not cross their mind.” This quote proves that child soldiers are victims because the only reason that some joined was because they had to or else they would die. Also because when they joined they didn’t really know what was going to happen and they didn’t know about the all of the mass killings that would occur. They were just focused on staying alive and getting the basic necessities that they needed like food, water, and shelter. If they wouldn’t have joined then they could have died from hunger or the harsh weather. They chose to defend themselves by joining the

A lot of the children interviewed within the first chapter of Peter W. Singer’s book Children at War are under the age of 12. They speak of torturing people in the most horrific of ways. Such as when joining the paramilitaries, A., age twelve, states that the first thing they make you do is kill someone. A random person is picked for the recruits to chop off his hands and arms. It is important to realize however, that not all of these child soldiers are as young as 7. Singer explains that a “A ‘child soldier’ is generally defined (under both international law and common practice) as any person under eighteen years of age who is engaged in deadly combat or combat support as part of an armed force or group.” What is most horrendous is

Since they may be ten or even younger when they join the army they would probably have very little education so they would not be able to support themselves. They are given drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol and can become addicted to them. The drugs changes their behavior and makes it easier to convince them to fight and kill even on the front line. With the addition of the drugs they may even if slowly begin to surely enjoy killing others. Additionally, a girl that is used as a child soldier is subject to other abuse such as rape.

Children all across world are being exploited as child soldiers. Everyday kids younger the age of 10 are putting their lives on the line mostly by force. ¨Over the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict. Over one million have been orphaned, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma.¨(Children In Conflict). A child soldier is a child with armed forces; they’re trained to fight, cook, be porters, messengers, informant spies, etc. Countries all across the world have been using children to fight, places like the United Kingdom, Africa, and Asia lean on children to do their dirty work regardless of what laws are put into place for recruitment age.

These children are forced to leave parents and loved ones to join the army for a long period of time. Nick Taussig, author of the article “Innocence lost: The Child Soldiers Forced to Murder,” interviewed a former child soldier named Ojok, and his tragedy childhood. Ojok expressed his feelings and memories of how he was dragged, and beaten, when forced to become a child soldier. Ojok was taken in the middle of the night, without knowing, and with only his shirt and underpants. He suffered walking 12 hours straight, without food, just water, and this horror continued for 3 days.

These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years,

For years children are being forced by commanders into being a soldier, this is due to conflicts between states and civil wars. Some children are even under 10 years old when they are being forced to serve, despite this, in the last 10 years, at least 10 million children are being killed or left seriously injured. Some children are willingly volunteer themselves, as they believe it would be giving some form of income and security. At least 10 or 30% of soldiers are reported to be girls, they are often used for fighting, many of them are abducted or recruited by the force.

Since they are forced to leave their homes, kids miss out on getting an education, spending time with family, making friends, and enjoying peaceful, carefree lives. Being recruited into war changes their childhood forever. They live in fear of getting killed or harmed, and have to murder other people themselves. If they don’t, they risk getting shot or abused by commanders. An article on hrw.org (2004) states that many children are “victims of killings, rape and sexual assault, abduction, torture, forced labor and displacement at the hands of the warring factions.” This reveals that when children are forced into war, they no longer get to enjoy the fun and simple childhood everyone deserves. Rather, they must live up to adult responsibilities and perform abhorrent crimes. In addition, these children are often given many drugs to make them more inclined to kill. An article on vision.org (2008) talks about a child soldier rehabilitation camp director that has reported that kids “would do just about anything that was ordered” while on drugs. The use of drugs in young people dangerously affects their overall health and alters their minds substantially. Also, Child Soldiers International notes that child soldiers “run a high risk of being killed or maimed.” This clearly describes the health and future of these children as they are forced into war. As can be seen, recruiting kids into war negatively affects their physical state and their

Once they are released from being a soldier, “In addition to facing rejection from their community, child combatants often suffer from post traumatic stress and may continue their violence outside of war, withdraw social interactions, and suffer from nightmares and hallucinations” not only hurting themselves but possibly others too (Lyon 53). The children have PTSD and are changed drastically on the inside, recalling events from the war constantly. After the war, they have nowhere to go. Many times their families are killed and the children lose their identity during war, causing them to not know what to do or where to go after battle. Tragically, “In many cases child soldiers have been written off as a lost generation with no hope of emotional and physical rehabilitation” thus ruining their lives (Lyon 53). Many may think that the war only damages children physically or visa versa but they do not realize the real consequences. Those innocent children cannot unsee what they experienced first hand, they cannot remove scars, and they cannot get limbs back that they may have lost. Post-War has caused everlasting worries and memories for the children, causing them to live their entire life much different than they once hoped.

In the last ten years over two million children have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma (Invisible Children 1). Here, they are referring to the infamous child soldiers. The issue of child soldiers has a long history of positive and negative reviews, but in summary, child soldiers are put into war as unofficial soldiers. These kids are treated so terribly by their commanders and fellow soldiers that they can become a threat to society upon their release from battle. There is an ongoing debate amongst society regarding whether or not these child soldiers should be given amnesty or charged for their crimes.

All around the world people are looking for soldiers, either big or small, to help fight for either their country, freedom, or religion. The abundance of children on earth has lead to one idea that would change the world forever. The idea that a child, who ranges from the age of 3-18, should fight in a war with a fully operated gun, grenades, and little hope of surviving. Countries in Iraq, Sira, Africa, and Asia, pluck children off the streets, drug them, and force them to go into battle. You have to kill or be killed. Generals are usually disrespectful and a life as a soldier is very difficult. As the thought of child soldiers lead to controversy. Many people are questioning if this act of violence, war, and the fearful pledge to kill is

“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults” (“Child Soldiers” 1). This quotation by Olara Otunnu explains that children are forced into becoming weapons of war. Children under 18 years old are being recruited into the army because of poverty issues, multiple economic problems, and the qualities of children, however, many organizations are trying to implement ways to stop the human rights violation.