The Causes Of Child Soldiers In Africa

Political strife has been always present on an international scale with surges of civil war due to government overthrow, sending nations into unrest. Although not common recently, the ideology of recruiting child soldiers still remains, and the lasting effects on the children are traumatizing. From witnessing the carnage of constant bombshells erupting in the distance to whole families being executed, the images are etched deep into their minds, haunting them even after they are discharged from the armies. Although putting an immediate end to child soldiers is unrealistic, the United States should aid in creating and training members of war-affected countries to run long-lasting Rehabilitation centers due to the unqualified and ineffective

At a young age it’s difficult to grasp the concept of death, but as time passes, the youth turn into the old and the old turn into the deceased. Whether people like it or not, death plays a role in their lives and it’s something no one can escape. Child soldiers are forced to kill, and if they don’t then they too are killed. Young children are trained into fierce warriors every day, and stopping this action has proven to be difficult. It can be argued from a recruiter that brings in children that children are disposable, easy to train, and almost infinite. Most of these kids never receive a chance to do what they want in life, furthermore it seems like children, especially in Africa, are being picked off the streets they’re grapes on a grapevine. The International Justice System appeals to cases like this everyday, as it can be a struggle to understand if a child is truly remorseful, and if they deserve amnesty. Children who are forced into crime should be given a chance to redeem themselves, as they generally have no intention to cause harm.

Imagine having to fight in a war you don’t want to fight in, seeing friends and family die all around you, but no matter how far you run you can never escape. Child soldiers in Sierra Leone do not have to imagine this - for them, it is reality. Ishmael Beah, who became a soldier at just age 12, as well as researchers such as Christophe Bayer, Fionna Klasen, Hubertus Adam know too well that the events in the war can never be forgotten. The story Beah told in his memoir A Long Way Gone captures the inhumane events that take place in Sierra Leone and tells of a story that many children have to endure. Sources like Harvard claim “among the 87 war-torn countries...300,000 - 500,000 children are involved with fighting forces as child soldiers.” Many of those children are being forced into the war without any choice at all and having to kill others as well. With this information we’re forced to ask the question: how are these children being affected by the war?

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.

What are child soldiers? Child soldiers are people under eighteen who partake in either a regular or irregular armed group in any way. According to Warchild there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world and often as a part of their recruitment they are forced to either kill or maim a loved one so that they cannot go back home. In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) the author recounts his life as a child soldier fighting on the government side in Sierra Leone from age thirteen to sixteen. This paper will be attempting to answer the questions of why certain armed groups use children, why it is wrong to do so, and how people are taking a stand to stop it.

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,

Child soldiers are found throughout history again and again. Child soldiers have been conscripted to war, kidnapped to participate in war-like acts, and even volunteered for these wars. Often, the children did not know what they were volunteering for. They were excited for the fun, exciting uniforms; they were excited to be a part of something bigger, and to feel like adults.

It is approximated that about 40% of all child soldiers are located in Africa, and out of an estimated 300,000 child soldiers globally, around 250,000 of them are active in Africa. "According to the 2008 Global Report on Child Soldiers by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, the LRA has abducted about 25,000 children since the 1980s." (www.accord.org.za) The percentage of children that are used as soldiers in Africa is shocking. Child soldiers in Africa are not fighting for the freedom of their country, though. The majority of children recruited as child soldiers are fighting alongside rebel groups who hope to take control of their country. These children do whatever the rebels tell them to do, and a failure to comply often results

Child soldiering is ultimately stated as follows: hundreds of children across the Democratic Republic of Congo are being forced into military and other groups as child soldiers. In 2015, 488 children were documented by the UN as new recruits. Out of these “488 new recruits, 26 were girls and 30 percent were under the age of 15”(Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, 2016). Children are pulled in for multiple reasons, and then rise up to ranks of commanders and sergeants at young ages. For example, one boy was ordered into the military at age seven by his uncle, a powerful

When you think about the continent of Africa and the countries that lie within, unpleasant thoughts of the horrible things that happen there are all too common. As unfortunate as this is, it's the cold truth for the underdeveloped continent. Everywhere you can think of in Africa has some kind of tragedy going on, whether it's people living without knowing what a home life is like, or if it's the constant death and disease. Unbeknownst to most people outside of Africa, one of the most common tragedies taking place is the manipulation and militarization of children. There is a plethora of militias out there, those that either abduct and force children into joining them, or those that manipulate children by making them think their only solution to misfortune is to fight. It's a sickening, yet also depressing, thing to think about, and it's no wonder that people choose to stay ignorant of the subject.

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.

Child warfare is a big problem today in the world. This is a big problem because children are getting taken away from their families and just getting pulled into the war and have to kill or they get beaten or killed if they put the kids in the front line to get killed before the high ranks. In the world there are approximately 300,000 child soldiers around the world. About 40% of the child soldiers are in their countries rank in the military. 40% of them are girls. This mainly happens in Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. This happens because the military does not want their high ranked soldiers to die, so they put the child soldiers in the front line to die before the high ranked soldiers die. Also if the children don’t kill in the battle they get beaten with batons and even get killed with guns, knives, or sticks. Then they get hung on a pole to show the people it’s a sign of glory to the people that kill them. The African officials are making the kids go through

Conceivable components, for example, poverty levels the proportion of orphans in a population, don't help us much in clarifying the distinctions in the events of child soldiers in under developed countire. Then again, they have proof that suggest that there is an imperative association between self participation in these wars among the children due to poverty levels, and being orphans as to why we see so many child soldiers. It is has been proven that some of the children join these groups under false presentation of protection, and on their own free will and is aware of their choice, and some are by forced abduction, some join to ensure that they can eat ever day, much like the gangs we see here in our suburban areas and big cities.

For over 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army has been at war with the government of Uganda, causing a civil war. The Army's Rebel Groups, have attacked small villages, resulting in thousands of innocent deaths, and the abduction of children to fight with the rebels. In order to maintain these organizations, the Rebel Groups are faced with the difficult task of recruiting individuals. With limited available resources, the Rebel Groups cannot offer any appealing incentives to their recruits, but require complete loyalty (Vermeij, 2009). A child's innocence, trust, and blind obedience make them desirable soldiers. For the Rebel Groups in South Africa, children are therefore strategically used as pawns in combat. Children under the age