| Child Soldiers of Sudan |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 16 May 2007 | |
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Most child soldiers were enlisted when they made their way to army camps in search for food and protection. As young as ten years of age, most of these youth have known little but family loss and violence. Some of them were orphans, while others were pursuing their parents. Children were mainly being recruited by militia groups and the southern Sudan defense forces. Though majority of children did not actively participate in combat but were instead used as messengers, cooks and guards. A surprisingly large number of children were also trained to use arms to defend themselves against northern government militia forces. Many of them as a result suffered severe psychological and physical injury. Moreover the brutal Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army has not yet released women and children it abducted in southern Sudan. A report by British-based Save the Children accused Sudanese government forces of recruiting children as young as eight in the South of the country, while over 8,000 children were still being used in rebel and militia groups across West Africa. In the last three years, tens of thousands of children have returned home after serving in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Army (SPLA). The transition is not always easy, because for some children the armed groups represent the only family they can remember. And despite the terrible experiences these children have undergone while they were soldiers, it can be difficult for them to make a new life outside the rebel communities. It emerged that former child soldiers in southern Sudan are failing to settle back into their communities and instead are picking up guns to fight again. They want to get back into the armed forces because they are used to carrying a gun, they have social status with a gun and they just can't get back into their communities. A peace deal was signed in January 2005 to end two decades of civil war in the South but has yet to be fully implemented. Unless a community is build, unless education, sport, recreation for the community are provided, these children will be left out in middle. Share & Bookmark             |
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