Military Child Soldiers

Military use of children has existed for a long time and it is only in the 1970s that international conventions have been drafted to limit the number of children in armed conflicts across the world. Typically, children have been used as fighters at the front lines, cooks, messenger boys, spies, human shields, couriers and of late, even suicide bombers. Such use of children in warfare makes them child soldiers.
A plethora of children are taken from their loved ones by outlaw soldiers and recruited as child soldiers. Children are very frequently used as soldiers because they are considered as ‘affordable’ and submissive warriors. Another factor that makes children vulnerable to recruitment is that they are orphans. According to a rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, children make good fighters because “they’re young and want to show off. They think it’s all a game, so they’re fearless.”
Child soldiers are treated appallingly in a number of ways. For example, they are heavily beaten up, starved and often left to die after they come back from the battlefield badly wounded. They are repeatedly persuaded by the adult or senior soldiers …show more content…
It is imperative that in attempts to address this issue, Africa accommodates both the need of justice and the reintegration of child soldiers back into society. Children who are old enough to be charged with criminal responsibility demand special procedures to take account of their youth as well as their further developmental state, while those underage of criminal responsibility should be helped to fully recover and be reintegrated into their society. It is important as well that aid organisations be careful of applying Western psychology methods within an African setting, as this could lead to the stigmatisation of the children and hinder their reintegration into