Thousands of children still figure among the ranks of the Chadian army and the government has done nothing to honour its promise to demobilise them, according to a report published on Monday.
”The Chadian army and its allied paramilitary forces are keeping thousands of child soldiers out of demobilisation efforts, despite the government’s promises to release underage fighters from military service,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its report.
The Chadian government, which had previously adamantly denied claims by the media and non-governmental organisations that its army used child soldiers, finally admitted to the practice by signing an agreement in May with the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, pledging to demobilise and protect the children.
”The Chadian government is failing on its promise to remove children from its armed forces,” Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director, said.
Far from removing the children, the human rights group said it had learned through interviews with army commanders that ”military personnel would attempt to exclude children from the demobilisation process”.
”Some of the child soldiers will be demobilised, but most will be hidden,” the group quoted a senior Chadian army officer as saying.
HRW pointed out that all of the 413 children who had been demobilised since May had come from the ranks of a former rebel movement that recently allied itself with the government and that not a single child had been removed from the national army.
”The [UN] Security Council should demand that the Chadian government and its allied forces end child recruitment and release children from their ranks,” the group said.
Chad’s armed forces have since the end of 2005 been fighting several rebel groups along the country’s border with Sudan. According to HRW both the national army and the rebels have massively recruited children into their ranks. – Sapa-AFP