Slavery today

The child soldiers

Today is new kinds of slavery and we'll tell you about one of those: child soldiers

A child soldier is anyone under the age of 18 who has been recruted or used in hostilities by state armed forces or non-state armed groups.

Over the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict. Over one million have been orphaned, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma. Since 1998 there have been armed conflicts involving child soldiers in at least 36 countries. However, the traumatic scars left on children are just one of a vast aftermath of post war problems: refugees, food shortages and mourning for lost relatives. Former Child Soldiers may at best have their needs forgotten and at worst be blamed by their communities for what happened.

The recrutment:

Some are abducted from their homes and forced to become soldiers
(a tactic notoriously used by the Lords Resistance Army.)

A village may be forced to provide a certain number of children as soldiers in exchange for staying safe from attack.

Some children are volunteered by their parents due to extreme poverty and hunger at home.

In some rare cases children volunteer to join the fight because of ideological reasons or to avenge the death of their family

Why the children:

children are used as soldiers because they are easier to condition and brainwash. They don't eat much food, don't need paying much and have an underdeveloped sense of danger so are easier to send into the line of fire.

As children make up the majority demographic in many conflict-affected countries, there's a constant supply of potential recruits. Due to their size and 'expendability', children are often sent into battle as scouts or decoys, or sent in the first wave to draw the enemy's fire

Some ideas to improve this situation:

Allow children to go to school and give them the right to education that would allow them not to fall into this situation.

To prevention campaigns to inform parents and children which would not fall into the trap.

Require the state to recognize cases of child soldiers and punish military leaders who send them to the front.

Protect the inhabitants so that children can not be kidnapped.

The sources:

https://www.child-soldier.org/

https://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/2147

https://www.amnesty.org/en/children