Armed groups involved in conflict in countries from the Philippines and Afghanistan to the Congo have been using youths under 18 as soldiers despite international calls to stop the practice, the United Nations said on Monday.
The UN envoy responsible for the campaign against child soldiers, Olara Otunnu, said 23 groups involved in wars in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Somalia are known for recruiting children, including girls.
Wars in those five countries have been monitored by the UN Security Council, which issued resolutions to end the fighting and recruitment of child soldiers.
But Otunnu said other rebel groups in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), Colombia, northern Uganda and Sudan have escaped the council’s official attention.
The United Nations has reported that at least 300 000 children around the world have been forced by armed groups to do various tasks, including fighting, carrying war equipment and prostitution. Attention has been placed on armed groups in major conflicts like those in Afghanistan and Congo, where UN-led efforts have been made to liberate and return the children to society.
Otunnu, whose report on child soldiers was submitted to the council, the UN’s 15-nation decision-making body, said groups such as the New Party’s Army, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Moro National Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf in the
Philippines were known to have recruited children.
The Maoist part in Nepal and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka were also accused of using under-age youths. In Myanmar, both the rebel group Karenni National Liberation Army and the government’s army have used children. In Colombia, the leftist rebel groups the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army as well as right-wing paramilitaries have been known for decades to recruit boys and girls for ”use in combat”.
Paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and rebels in Chechnya have also used children. In Chechnya, children have been enlisted to plant mines and explosives.
But in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the report said, conflicts and child recruitment have stopped.
In Guatemala, Cambodia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mozambique and Nicaragua, conflicts have been stopped for some time, and peace is being consolidated, but the report said recruitment and use of child soldiers ”remain, and their full integration (into society) is still a challenge”.
The report said that in Africa’s Great Lakes region, the World Bank and donor governments have allocated $500-million to support the demobilisation and reintegration of children into society.
Otunnu said the United Nations has made ”impressive gains” in working out international norms and standards to protect children against armed groups’ abuses.
”More needs to be done, there is a need to promote and disseminate these standards and norms and to raise awareness about them on the ground,” the report said. – Sapa-DPA