From teaching to soccer, communities key to ending use of child soldiers

Listening to local communities is key to meeting a global goal of ending the use of children by armed groups by 2025, says a top UN official.

Former child soldiers often face stigma when they return home and risk being re-recruited if they cannot find food, security and support among their communities, according to experts on child soldiers.

“Even when separated from armed forces and groups, children continue to struggle in regaining their place in their families and communities,” the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba told a virtual event.

Girls and boys are still forced to join armed groups as fighters or in roles such as cooks or for sexual exploitation, in at least 14 countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Somalia, the UN has said.

The exact number of child soldiers is unknown, but in 2019 about 7,700 children — some as young as six — were recruited and used as fighters or in other roles, mostly by armed groups outside the state, such as militias and rebels, UN data shows.

Gamba has warned that more children could be pushed into joining armed groups — regarded as a form of child labour — with increasing poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has hampered efforts to protect children in conflict zones.

Sandra Olsson of War Child, which co-organised the webinar with anti-slavery group Alliance 8.7, said child rights groups needed to pay more attention to solutions offered by local communities.

From a teacher giving children lessons without being paid to a boy organising soccer games, local people have a critical role to play in helping children in their community, said Olsson, a reintegration adviser.