child soldiers in africa essay

Title: Why Child Soldiering Persists in Africa

The recruitment and use of child soldiers by state and non-state actors remains a frequent occurrence in Africa despite local and international efforts to combat the practice. While eradicating the problem is ambitious, there are substantial opportunities to strengthen ongoing efforts to reduce the frequency at which children are recruited for armed conflict. Bolstering ongoing efforts to address the root causes of conflict, enhancing monitoring and reporting mechanisms, educating armed groups about legal responsibilities while holding violators accountable, and building resilient communities are all necessary actions to combat child soldier recruitment.

Introduction

Child recruitment by armed militants and state governments is a persistent issue. Despite 196 countries having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and 172 having ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of the Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), children in conflict zones still face the serious threat of recruitment by state and non-state actors.

Recent research illustrates how vulnerable children have become over the past decade. In 2020, approximately 337 million children around the world resided within 50 kilometers of an ongoing conflict where at least one conflict actor was reported to have recruited children. In Africa specifically, some 118 million children were in such a position, meaning about one in six were vulnerable to recruitment. Such trends are alarming as Africa is the world’s youngest continent with roughly 40 percent of the population aged 15 or under .

The growing vulnerability of children coincides with increasing levels of violence in several countries across the continent. This trend is especially true in the Sahel , where Islamist insurgencies have proliferated over the past decade. A 2021 United Nations report identified West and Central Africa as the most recent epicenter of child soldier recruitment with the region having the highest number of verified cases of child recruitment between 2016 to 2020.

Countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso have been hit particularly hard, as they struggle to combat Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups. The U.N. Secretary General’s 2022 report on children and armed conflict in Mali, for instance, highlighted a continuous rise in child recruitment over several years. In Burkina Faso, at least a quarter of all schools were closed as of October 2023 due to armed groups’ “ war against education .” Beyond the Sahel, Nigeria , Sudan , South Sudan , the Central African Republic , the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Somalia have all experienced persistent child soldier recruitment over the past decade.

Why does the problem persist?

Child recruitment is a global challenge, but the problem remains deep-rooted in several African states despite decades of efforts to combat the practice. Academic research frames the problem in supply- and demand-side terms, shedding light on structural problems in the society unique to young children as well as the conditions that make children desirable recruits.

On the supply side, child recruitment is a byproduct of adverse societal conditions, such as limited educational and employment opportunities, poverty , and displacement . These conditions can increase the pool of available children and, some argue , the likelihood of children joining armed groups voluntarily. Faced with disparate societal and economic prospects, children may see joining a militant group as a pathway to an improved living situation and enhanced personal security. The continent’s prospective demographics mean that children are likely to remain vulnerable targets moving forward: Africa’s population is projected to double by 2050, more than half of the population will be under the age of 25, and sub-Saharan Africa was recently identified as having the highest rates of educational exclusion globally.

On the demand side, children are recruited because they are seen as valuable resources. Militant groups may use children as “human bombs”  because they attract less suspicion. They take advantage of children’s susceptibility to  manipulation and loyalty  because of their limited cognitive development and desire for social connections. Militants also use child soldiers to replace battlefield losses and assist in non-combat activities like  resource extraction .

Combatting Child Soldiering in Africa

Combatting this issue necessitates action: identifying and resolving root causes, disincentivizing armed actors from pursuing children, and enhancing education in local communities. The U.N. and others have continued proactive efforts to address this difficult problem.

For instance, the U.N. has gone to great lengths to establish an international norm against child soldiering. Article 38 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child set an age threshold of 15 for individuals to participate in armed conflict. Slightly over a decade later, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the OPAC , raising the age threshold to 18. Like most international conventions, Article 6 of OPAC outlines the state’s responsibility to “take all necessary legal, administrative and other measures to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of its provisions.” However, getting countries to reform domestic law to ensure compliance is difficult.

With its adoption of the U.N. Security Council resolution 1612  in July 2005, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) took an important step in combatting child recruitment. Resolution 1612 codified a formal monitoring and reporting mechanism (MRM) to track grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict, providing information about the recruitment location, perpetrators, and exploitation mechanisms. The MRM architecture consists of a country-level task force on monitoring and reporting (CTFMR) that works in collaboration with relevant U.N. entities and NGOs to gather and vet data on child recruitment and other grave violations against children. These task forces provide a critical link to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAAC) and the U.N. Secretary General, who track, evaluate, and publish annual reports on children in armed conflict. Though only providing a snapshot of the scale of recruitment in some cases, the MRM allows the U.N. and other IGOs and NGOs to more accurately deploy anti-recruitment resources.

However, monitoring and reporting alone are insufficient to end child soldier recruitment. The international community needs to also engage and educate armed groups on their responsibilities in armed conflicts, as many groups are unaware of or intentionally ignore their obligations under International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

NGOs like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Geneva Call have worked directly with armed groups to inform these actors of their legal obligations under IHL and human rights law. The Geneva Call has even gotten armed groups to sign a “Deed of Commitment” to commit to stop child recruitment. The U.N. also engages with non-state armed groups via the development of “action plans,” similarly aiming to get them to commit to not recruiting children and releasing those in their ranks.

Disincentivizing and deterring armed groups from recruiting children in the first place is the most important, albeit most difficult, goal. The international community has used judicial means to hold recruiters accountable. Thomas Lubanga Dylio , the first person convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was found guilty of the forcible recruitment of children in the DRC, among other actions. While the conviction was an important step, it is difficult to quantify the degree to which criminal accountability truly deters. Nonetheless, the ICC, along with domestic legal institutions, should continue to prosecute those who recruit child soldiers as a credible warning.

There also remains a critical need to dissuade children in conflict zones from enlisting. In places where the government is unable to project power across its territory, local communities need to be equipped to safeguard children by providing outlets and services that reduce their incentives to join armed groups. This requires international actors and donors to invest in community-based organizations like local small businesses or religious institutions that provide job opportunities or safe havens for local populations, which simultaneously also strengthens civil society. Investments in local NGOs that support children’s healthcare and education can ensure their basic needs are met, decreasing their susceptibility to recruitment. Lastly, educating children and their communities about their vulnerability to recruitment can also pay dividends. In a word, the local communities need to be resilient , which demands that states and international actors collaborate and invest consistently, including through bilateral and multilateral aid, philanthropic donations from charitable organizations, and support from U.N. funds like UNICEF or the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF).

Another key aspect of prevention is implementing robust reintegration campaigns that consider the full spectrum of children’s experiences with armed groups. Conflicts where children have been recruited are at an increased risk of recurrence due to a coalescence of factors, including economic disadvantages, a lack of education, and psychological scars, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is therefore critical that rehabilitation and reintegration programs consider the diverse experience of children as both victims and perpetrators of violence and offer economic, mental, and physical health services in the rehabilitation process. Such services should come from both international actors who can bring valuable resources and mental health practitioners, but, at the same time, they must also incorporate local actors and financial sources to ensure long-term accessibility. As the U.N. reported in 2021, reintegration programs have suffered from financing crises, and successful reintegration of children demands durable funding streams that ensure the delivery of care and resources well after the fighting stops.

Successful prevention also demands proactive efforts by IGOs and NGOs. NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International serve as important watchdog organizations that bring much-needed international attention to child recruitment. Their amplification and documentation on child recruitment will continue to be critical to successful convictions of war criminals in international forums. IGOs like the U.N. and specifically UNICEF must continue recent efforts that seek to establish and strengthen child protection systems . This includes working with national governments, local authorities, and local communities to ensure that a robust set of laws, policies, and services across all social sectors are established to mitigate child recruitment before it starts.

It is also vital to keep the pressure on those governments that continue to use child soldiers. It is unrealistic to expect armed non-state groups to respect norms when governments continue to violate them. State institutions and militaries must develop the capacity to faithfully verify recruit ages, work with the U.N. on best practices for monitoring potential blind spots in recruitment practices, criminalize child recruitment, and consistently prosecute violators. Recalling that the Organization for African Unity, the predecessor to the African Union, was a  frontrunner  in establishing norms against recruiting children under the age of 18 for armed conflict, African governments must hold each other accountable to the standards agreed upon over three decades ago. 

Overall, child soldier recruitment in Africa remains a serious problem. Given the difficulty of resolving the root causes, efforts focused on monitoring and accurately identifying cases of child recruitment, disincentivizing armed groups via diplomacy and deterrence, and rectifying deficiencies in rehabilitation and reintegration programs are amongst the best strategies for reducing child recruitment. The complexity of the issue demands a holistic approach, but the payoff of a world without child combatants is worth the investment.

Christopher M. Faulkner is an assistant professor of national security affairs in the College of Distance Education at the US Naval War College (NWC). His research focuses on militant recruitment, private military companies, and civil-military relations. He has been published widely in leading international security and relations journals, including International Studies Quarterly and the European Journal of International Relations, and has contributed to outlets such as War on the Rocks, Foreign Policy, and Lawfare, among others. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Naval War College, US Navy, Department of Defense, or US Government.

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Child Soldiers in Africa Research Paper

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Introduction

Historically, causes of child soldiers, effects of child soldiers, efforts of stopping the vice.

Any person under the age of eighteen and is involved in any armed force or group passes for a child soldier. In Africa, the problem of child soldiers has been a social thorn for long given the incessant wars across the continent from West Africa through Southern regions and Eastern parts to Northern Africa. The definition of child soldiers transcends the conventional understanding of boys wielding arms out in the battlefield; the definition now covers girls that are left behind to offer services like cooking or spying (Gbowee, 2011).

The idea of child soldiers thrives mostly in conflict situations to mean that, when a country faces civil war or rebel groups, children are recruited into fighting the war and as aforementioned, Africa plays host to many child soldiers especially because of the volatile political climate of the continent.

Many countries in Africa have gone through civil wars and political instability. These environments provide the perfect conditions for children to be recruited either by forces loyal to the government or the rebel groups.

Uganda has suffered one of the longest civil wars since 1980 involving Joseph Kony against subsequent governments. Sierra Leone recruited child soldiers during the civil wars of the 1990s while Liberia too walked the same route in a bid to oust the then president Charles Taylor (Verhey, 2001, p. 5).

The civil wars in Congo, Somalia, Angola, Sudan, and Ivory Coast all serve to show the extent of Africa’s polarity and degradation of democracy. Dictatorial governments have emerged over the years leading to uprising of rebel groups in opposition to the government of the day, which has been the root cause of civil wars in most African countries.

The presence of a conflict leads to disruption of the normal life of people living in the affected areas. Children no longer have access to basic social amenities like education because schools become inaccessible under war. Many disruptions occur in families and when escaping from the hostile environment, everyone goes his/her own way.

The children are left on their own without protection by their parents or provision of basic needs like food and water. Seeking refuge from hunger and thirst, the rebel groups blackmail them into recruitment (“Child Soldiers Edition,” 2008). Recruitment into becoming soldiers remains as the only hope of escaping death through hunger. Such was the case in most African countries like Sierra Leone.

When children see the atrocities extended to family members, vengeance becomes a driving force behind many child soldiers in Africa. African families are known to be firm and the society very social thus, when violence is perpetrated to some of them by forces loyal to dictatorial governments, the children may join the rebel forces to revenge for their families. The Ugandan government of Iddi Amin and Milton Obote was repressive and committed various atrocities against its own citizens.

The crippled and other physically handicapped people were killed. When rebellion arose through Joseph Kony and Yoweri Museveni, children were more than willing to be recruited to avenge the death of their loved ones (Singer, 2006, p.7). Fighting also provided a source of income. According to Beah, his joining the national army seems to be influenced by the fact that rebel forces destroyed his childhood when they invaded his village causing him to leave the place he had always called home (2008, p.10).

Poverty has ravaged many parts of Africa and the need for a source of income leading to more recruitment into the armed forces. The source of conflict has sometimes been control of natural resources like is the case in Congo and Sudan. Although Africa holds large deposits of minerals and oil, internal wrangles, conflicts, and eventual civil wars implies that no gains are obtained from the same.

Most rebel forces promise hefty returns to those who will undertake the course of fighting for their own resources. Due to poverty, most families end up recruiting almost the entire family into these rebel groups to increase their income.

Most of the children abducted and forcefully recruited into fighting often suffer a lot later in their life. When they are forcefully recruited to committing crimes like killing and rape, their lives are extensively damaged and their future identity altered (Child Soldiers Edition, 2008). They are deprived of the warmth of growing up in a family setting, the security of parents, and the opportunity to socialize or interact with other children.

They usually suffer from the trauma of killing people and it becomes to them an addiction just like a drug addiction. Beah recounts his traumatic experiences as a boy soldier in the national army of Sierra Leone (2008, p.15). The things he lists in his memoirs are frightening and traumatic to say the least.

Many children lose their lives in the battlefront from bullets, landmines, or suicide missions. However, children who have survived their service as soldiers are most likely to have suffered physical injuries and post-traumatic stress reactions due to the sole effect of being forced to commit atrocities against their own will (Beah, 2008. p.20).

These may involve such things like nightmares and lack of sleep. However, Beah’s account provides a glimmer hope that even after such conditions; rehabilitation can help reform such children. He particularly reformed and recovered to become an advocate.

The girl child has been the most affected in Africa due to child soldier. Conflicts in Africa have been marred with claims of sexual violence against women especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most young boys joined rebels with a goal of proving their manhood but beyond fighting, they also forcefully took girls as their wives (Gbowee, 2011). These girls have been the subject of rape and violence from the boys who have the sole aim of making the girls submit.

The issue of child soldiers is classified as a human rights issue and the United Nations and the UN denounced the practice by passing resolution in 1999.

The most important efforts across the world to fight recruitment of children to become soldiers came through the international treaty on child soldiers, which entered into force and increased the lower age level from fifteen to eighteen (United Nations, 2002). Although the treaty was optional, many countries signed it including African countries thus providing a glimmer of hope. Economic development and emergence of democratic regimes within Africa has contributed to decrease in conflicts.

Many more efforts need to be put in place by African governments to protect the rights of children in their respective countries. Child soldiers have not significantly reduced in Africa proportionately with the efforts made in terms of legislation. This fact suggests that focus should now shift to the issue of reducing conflicts or solving them in ways that are more amicable. Peace and reconciliation for better economic growth rates should be the focus of all African governments. Finally, equitable distribution of resources will go a long way to reduce conflicts in many African countries.

Beah, I. (2008). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Child Soldiers Edition. (2008). The Advocates for Human Rights . Web.

Gbowee, L. (2011). Child Soldiers, child wives: wound for life . Web.

Singer, W. P. (2006). Children at war . Los Angeles: University of California Press.

United Nations. (2002). Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict . Web.

Verhey, B. (2001). Child Soldiers Preventing, Demobilizing and Reintegration. Africa Region Working Paper Series . Web.

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Article Contents

1. introduction, 2. unlimited wars, 3. children in war, 4. why use child soldiers, 5. conclusion.

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Why Child Soldiers are Such a Complex Issue

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Alexandre J. Vautravers, Why Child Soldiers are Such a Complex Issue, Refugee Survey Quarterly , Volume 27, Issue 4, December 2008, Pages 96–107, https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdp002

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The use of child soldiers in armed conflicts is qualified as one of the worst forms of child labour and concerns up to 300,000 individuals under the age of 18 years, some of whom are much younger. Mostly they are in developing countries with the situation being worse in sub-Saharan Africa, where two-thirds of contemporary armed conflicts are raging. The phenomenon is not recent, but has nevertheless increased with the end of the Cold War and the multiplication of intra-state conflicts. International legal standards have been developed over the past 30 years. The difficulties in implementing them are due to the fact that, in most cases, child soldiers are present in the context of failed states, of internal conflicts, non-state actors, paramilitary organizations, organized crime, minorities and vulnerable groups, and/or mobile or displaced populations. This article attempts to list the main causes of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and suggests long-term cooperation and development as more effective approaches than the present disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programmes.

Today, the phenomenon of child soldiers concerns an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children throughout the world, who are principally in twenty countries. The majority are active in Africa (100,000) and, to a lesser extent, in the Middle East and Asia. Of the thirty-one countries where there were armed conflicts in 1998, 87 per cent used child soldiers below the age of 18 years and 71 per cent children under the age of 15 years. 1 The figures have remained stable since then. In the meantime, the number of armed groups using child soldiers has grown from twenty-three in 2002 to forty in 2006 and fifty-seven in 2007. 2 These figures indicate that international regulation is at least partly successful. It also leads to the conclusion that child soldiers are more and more often used in irregular armed groups.

The two Additional Protocols to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, adopted in 1977, have helped to generalize and regulate the application of international humanitarian law in relation to civilian populations caught up in internal conflict. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2002 declares “conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities” is a war crime. Moreover, the International Labour Organization considers child soldiering as one of the “predefined worst forms” of child labour since 1999. 3

In 2000, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, raised the minimum age for the compulsory recruitment and direct participation in hostilities from 15 years to 18 years. Since 2002, when it entered into force, 123 countries have ratified the Optional Protocol. 4 Since February 2007, sixty-six governments have subscribed to the Paris Principles and Guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups. 5 In 2005, the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 1612 to set up a “monitoring, reporting and compliance mechanism” to help enforce compliance among groups using child soldiers in armed conflict. 6

International legal standards have thus been developed in the past 30 years, but progress is slow and uneven. Despite resolutions and statements of intent, the situation may be worsening. UNSC Resolution 1612 speaks of a “lack of overall progress on the ground”. 7 The difficulty of applying these standards is that most cases involve failed states, intra-state conflicts, non-state actors, paramilitary organizations, organized crime, minorities, vulnerable groups, and/or mobile or displaced populations. The situation raises questions about the growing rift between developed countries and groups or regions marginalized within the international community.

This article attempts to list the main reasons why children are recruited and used as soldiers. It suggests that long-term cooperation and development are a better alternative to current disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programmes.

Child soldiers are not a recent phenomenon. On the contrary, in Modern European societies, it was formerly commonplace for children to be enrolled in field regiments, although society was then substantially different. By the end of the eighteenth century in certain regions of France, up to a third of children were killed or abandoned, in particular in towns and in times of famine or hardship. 8 Many abandoned children joined regiments, while the youngest child in large families was often also entrusted to them. They became so-called “lost children”, who often served in the front ranks and the most exposed positions. In this way, they “paid their debt” to society.

In modern times, society underwent a substantial transformation, with an increased regulation of the population. It saw the development of general conscription, but also the establishment of a minimum age for service in national armed forces. The population became increasingly controlled through the advent of mandatory public schooling and mandatory general conscription. 9 This can be seen in the creation of the scout movement and also in the development of physical education in school and youth movements, which were required and determined by military needs. 10

The escalation of means of warfare brought about by the industrial revolution, the conscription system of the national armed forces of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the advent of nuclear weapons and the move towards professionalized armies in the late twentieth century have managed to limit war to a “symmetric” confrontation between national actors. 11 But the end of the Cold War created a new security environment, characterized by the increasingly narrower distinction between peace and war, the increasing numbers of internal conflicts versus the traditional interstate wars, the multiplication of actors (including insurgent and irregular groups, foreign and international military contingents, and private military companies), the increased use of irregular and “asymmetric” warfare (such as ambushes, terrorism, kidnapping, blackmailing, and torture) and insurgent tactics (such as symbolic action, propaganda and deception, exploitation of the media, targeting representatives of institutions, or the civilian population), the increasing numbers of failed states, the implications of local and internal conflicts on the regional and international levels.

It can be argued that the overarching consequences of the increasing complexity of war is the concentration of conflicts in urbanized and densely populated areas and the increasing toll on civilian populations in conflict. The end result of this complexity is a generalization of protracted crisis: a third of the present conflicts are over 30 years old. 12 And the longer the conflict, the more it impacts upon the livelihoods and future generations, impacting children.

When the Second World War started in 1939, few countries were prepared for a protracted conflict. Military machines were geared towards short, fast “lightning” campaigns. Those who were not suffered dire consequences in the first 2 years of the war. 13

But as the war lasted, increasing mobilization of the economy and the population for the war effort was undertaken. The drafting age was lowered repeatedly, in order to re-supply the field armies. In Germany, in particular, the total militarization of society can be seen with the conscription of the Hitlerjugend youth movements (in 1945, officially enrolled in the armed forces from the age of 16 years upwards) and the Volkssturm (popular militias made up of men unfit to serve in the regular army, up to the age of 65 years). It can be argued that the resort to these extremely young and extremely old combatants, as well as the systematic resort to slave labour in concentration camps, is at least in part due to the traditional vision of the Nazi planners, who resisted the drafting of women in the armed forces despite all odds. 14 This situation is exemplified by the fact that the last pictures of Hitler, taken in front of his Berlin bunker, see him congratulating “tank hunting” children below even the official conscription age.

Although the German example is probably the most shocking and the best documented, it should be noted that Allied countries also resorted to the mobilization of their population for the war effort. Women, in particular, served in the industries and the forces in the Soviet Union. The United States instated a “draft” system down to the age of 18 years, in order to field an army of 16 million troops. The United Kingdom's “call-up” system was necessary in order to field forces – national and Common Wealth – that would keep up with the American numbers in Europe.

The Cold War saw the almost systematic resort to conscription – massive or selective. But child soldiers in this period were essentially an issue in the wars of decolonization. As we have argued before, the increasing use of child soldiers came with the end of the Cold War and the increasing numbers of intra-state wars in the 1990s.

Having reviewed the numbers and geographic distribution of the phenomenon, we must realize that child soldiers are a symptom of deeper issues of a political and economic nature. Projects dealing with the legislation and the consequences of the use of child soldiers in armed forces and armed groups will be dealt with below. But the only effective way of addressing the issue needs to start with an understanding of the root causes. 15 We will argue that these causes are often bundled into clusters.

4.1. The mobilization of resources and populations for (total) war

The historical background of the general conscription of resources and personnel for national defence has been described above. Traditional industrial wars and the resort to mass armies ( Millionenheere ) have produced a drive towards the planning of peace-time readiness and the militarization of society. The countries most prone to this tendency are the smaller countries fighting for self-defence (Switzerland, Israel) or medium-sized countries committed to supra-national military alliances hoping, with the mobilization of sufficient forces, to maintain their great power status overseas, while at the same time guaranteeing multiple collective security commitments (France, Spain). While the mobilization of a considerable proportion of society may induce severe consequences in time of “total war” ( true war ), Martin Van Creveld assumes that in general this configuration is less and less probable ( real war ). 16

It should be noted that despite its apparent obsolescence in the contemporary true war literature, focused on the use of highly professional forces using high technology and expensive weaponry, the mobilization of society for territorial defence has emerged in specific countries. As one can see, the idea of symmetric conflict has not completely disappeared. Most of these have in common their designation by the international community as “rogue states”. The mobilization and preparedness for total war can be seen as a deterrent against interference and intervention. This is the case of the regular and irregular forces in Myanmar (where 70,000 or more of the Burma army's estimated 350,000 soldiers may be children), 17 Nepal (where 6,000–9,000 of the Maoist armed forces are believed to be children), 18 or North Korea. The issue of international relations with these countries is raised. Indeed it could be argued that international sanctions and pressures can be used as causes and/or pretexts by these countries to militarize and draft their youth.

4.2. The mobilization of (irregular) forces for resistance against a central power

Today, a majority of child soldiers are found not in regular national armies, but rather in armed groups, guerrillas, paramilitary or military forces organized by dissident or secessionist movements, by terrorist organizations or organized crime. 19 This is the case of the highly publicized left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), which accounts for 80 per cent of the child soldiers in the country. 20

It can be argued that paramilitary or rebel groups will more frequently resort to the use of child soldiers, as these groups are often active against authoritarian regimes. As the men in age of bearing arms in these countries are often drafted ( Sections 4.1 and 4.4 ) in the regular/national military forces, the sections of the population from which these movements typically recruit are peripheral/rural populations, clandestine or marginal/persecuted minorities, vulnerable or displaced populations, as well as children below the nominal age of conscription.

The erosion of the Westphalian system after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which some scholars have described as the development of “neo feudalism”, have generally weakened central authorities and encouraged the arming of rebel groups fighting the central authority. This is the case in the Philippines, where 13 per cent of the 10,000 strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are children. This is a clear case in Chad with the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) with over 1,000 child irregulars and rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accounting for over 30,000 children abducted in paramilitary forces. In Uganda, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has used over 30,000 boys and girls as soldiers in the past 30 years. In the failed state of Somalia, all groups have resorted to the use of child soldiers, accounting for an estimated 200,000 individuals in the past 16 years. 21

4.3. Independence and political survival

We have addressed in Section 4.1 the need for “rogue states” and countries marginalized from the international community to ensure deterrence and territorial defence by all means available. In the case of ideological or religious authoritarian regime, the mobilization of youth movements and their use in preparation for conventional defence as well as intra-state COunter INsurgency (COIN) is another cause for the use of child soldiers. We have noted above the cases of Myanmar or North Korea, and may add the case of Bolivia (40 per cent of the regular army is believed to be under the age of 18 years, with half of those aged 14–16 years). 22

4.4. Exercising control over populations, vulnerable/displaced populations

Most authoritarian regimes and movements have resorted to a form of indoctrination or militarization. The incorporation of large numbers of youths in youth organizations, paramilitary groups and possibly overlapping political, ideological or religious structures has served the purpose of exercising control over a population. The activities, opinions and to a great extent, the violence of people can be controlled and channelled in this way, against a designated “threat” – foreign or internal.

This can be found in examples such as the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal, which has not demobilized its 6,000–9,000 child paramilitaries, despite a peace agreement being in place. 23 Other examples of delayed demobilization include Zimbabwe and Côte d’Ivoire. 24

Children belonging to minorities, mobile or displaced populations “may be at greater risk of recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups due to reduced social protection and coping mechanisms, discrimination on the basis of their displaced status or their perceived allegiance with a belligerent”. 25 Marginal, minority, or immigrant populations may be specifically targeted for recruitment in the armed forces for their social or ethnic differences. In particular, Communist regimes in the 1960–1980s – through the use of mass youth movements – used recruitment and displacement of populations as a tool of integration and population control.

In any case, the difficulty of tracing these children once they have been recruited, reuniting them with their families and reintegrating them in their community poses extraordinary demands on humanitarian organizations. In particular, the application of the 1951 Refugee Convention must take into account age and gender when delivering the status of refugee. In the case of internally displaced persons (IDPs), international pressure as well as “name and shame” will need to complement the soft law available.

4.5. Productivity and decolonization

Newly independent states, having to come to terms with poverty, lack of skilled workers and technical expertise, as well as governance issues, can often not afford to mobilize adults in order to settle conflicts or wage their wars. A conjunction of structural economic and demographic disequilibrium prevents them from mobilizing the most productive, sedentary and experienced forces of the country, as we will point out below. Youth labour can be seen as less costly, available as it is nearly unlimited, easier to mobilize and, some will argue, “expendable”.

This raises both the child labour and the child soldier warning signs. We will consider in this respect that both issues are linked, requiring the recognition that the potential of these children needs to be realized in constructive ways. Education is expensive. 26 But sacrificing the youth for short-term goals will durably affect development, as children are seen solely from an immediate productivity perspective and not, as they should, in long-term factors of production, social and economic change, future active members of the socio-political community.

4.6. Cheap and unlimited resource

The population in Africa was estimated at 922 million in 2005. It has doubled in the past 28 years and quadrupled in the past 55 years. 27 Over 40 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan African countries are below the age of 15 years. Out of fifty-three countries, individuals in twenty-eight countries have a life expectancy at birth below 50 years, while forty-three have a life expectancy of below 60 years. The average population growth is 3 per cent. 28 But exogenous factors (such as HIV/AIDS, health, and conflicts), and endogenous changes in behaviour will limit Africa's demographic growth.

On the other hand, the highest population growth is expected in Western Asia. The most rapidly growing countries are: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, the United States of America, Bangladesh, Zaire, and Iran (in that order). 29

The structure of the population will create imbalances. According to UN estimates, the population will age globally, seeing an increase in the number of people aged 65 years or over from 131 million in 1950 to 371 million in 1994. The projected numbers of older persons will double by 2025 and may reach 1.4 billion by 2050, representing one-tenth of the global population. A significant proportion of this is due to the ageing of the “baby boom” generation in Europe, in North America, in Japan and more significantly, in China. 30

In order to “pay” and “care” for the ageing population, pressure on the active population will necessarily increase. In several countries, the social contribution length is increasing for both men and women. We may witness, in the coming decades, increased pressure to obtain younger and younger workforce. In parallel, where the age pyramid still has a wide base – in particular in Africa, children will be under increased pressure to work in their home country or emigrate to find work abroad.

4.7. Gregarious instinct

For many young people in precarious situations, in countries without perceptible prospects of personal development and economic or employment security, joining armed groups can be seen as a form of group and individual security. Bearing arms, in many parts of the world, is seen as a sign of authority and power. It may guarantee access to food, commodities, and favours outside of the rule of law. A symptom is the AK-47 Kalashnikov, copied and produced in millions by developing countries, readily available for a few dollars on open markets, and known in some parts of the world as the “African credit card”. 31

It can be argued that lawlessness and the development of armed groups, disputing central authorities and the rule of law, are intrinsically linked. Here again, a pragmatic policy of “nation-building” is necessary to ensure that weak governments can find the support and international legitimacy to assert themselves over centrifugal forces and groups. This may, in turn, be contradicted by the present trend towards the notions of human security, responsibility to protect and democratization, which, like the international designation of rogue or failed states, in effect weaken sovereignty, legitimacy and central authorities.

Here also, the International Community must be pragmatic and chose the lesser of two evils. The choice is between pragmatism and cultural relativism, on one side, versus idealist and long-term objectives on the other.

4.8. Discipline

It can be argued that children are easier to lead and command than adults. Without analysing the psychological grounds for this (pride, lack of experience and self-confidence, rite of passage, gregarious instincts, peer imitation and paternalistic models), historical examples show repeated use of fanaticized youth groups in times of war.

The example of the 12th Waffen-SS division “Hitlerjugend” is clear on this point. A total of 22,000 soldiers were formed into one of the strongest fighting outfits available to the Germans on the Normandy front in the summer of 1944. The average age of the division was 17 years; most of the conscripts were 16 years old, while their commander was only 36 years old. 32 The literature and archives demonstrate that despite fierce fighting and resistance at all costs, this unit was decimated and encircled in the Falaise pocket. Only 300 soldiers managed to escape and the unit ceased to exist as an organized fighting force. Some historians will say that this attitude and action had only a limited impact on the tactical situation and the course of events. This end result is far from any romantic or heroic vision of a war, or from any sound and responsible military decision.

Normandy is perhaps an exception. Other examples in the Middle East, Latin America or Asia show that discipline in such units is far from the norm. We will argue on the contrary that such units, made up of extremely young soldiers, have little or no military value. This has been demonstrated in-depth by comprehensive studies conducted by the US military after the Second World War and after the Vietnam conflict. These draw parallels between the effectiveness of fighting units and age/experience of troops. 33 The consequences of these studies have been the professionalization and the encouragement of longer careers in armed forces.

Units made up of “child combatants” are best suited for paramilitary operations and have little or no tactical value. Worse, they tend to be less focused and disciplined, inducing higher rates of infringement of international humanitarian law. More expertise and research in this field is necessary, to demonstrate the futility of enrolling youth in military forces. This message needs to be heard by the recruiters and decision-makers.

4.9. Irregularities in irregular groups

We have shown, in the cases demonstrated above, that a large proportion of child soldiers are found in rebel and non-state pressure groups. In the cases where these soldiers serve national governments, they are often incorporated in paramilitary forces, and are rarely acknowledged publicly as being a part of the regular forces. In some cases, government or State failure adds to other issues discussed above.

The lack of State sovereignty is therefore the cornerstone of the child soldier problem. It can therefore be argued that progress in the field of international law and regulation can only yield limited results in face of the circumstances. Indeed, as demonstrated above, international pressure and advocacy may erode government legitimacy and sovereignty even further. Worse, international economic sanctions will most certainly deepen the rift and encourage counterproductive courses of action.

In this area, participatory efforts are a slower but more rewarding solution. The increasing multinational security collaboration, the development of supra-national security frameworks – the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), African Union, the Partnership for Peace initiative of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – will help to draw up common standards and practices. This can already be seen in the wake of supra-national or UN-led multinational peace support operations.

4.10. Alcohol, drugs, and other substances

We have argued that international legislation and moral arguments are unlikely to have an impact on rebel groups and rogue states. As most of these governments, movements, or armed groups do not have access to the free global economy the situation is only exacerbated by the fact that these actors must often fund their war efforts through illegal channels.

Rebel groups and non-state actors may resort to plundering and blackmailing civilian populations for sources of finance. Cases of forced recruitment and abduction can be attested all over the world. Finally, we must also open our eyes to the links between such organizations and organized crime. Even the “virtuous” Taliban, who quelled the source of opium in Afghanistan, have resorted to this to survive, re-form, and arm themselves. 34

The children abducted or enrolled in armed groups are, in numerous cases, held under influence by alcohol, drugs, or other substances. While this may ensure some measure of “loyalty”, it cannot be ignored that this encourages criminal activities and war crimes. We will therefore argue that the fight against child soldiers necessitates increased cooperation and collaboration in the fight against drugs and crime: from narcotics to corruption, illegal traffics, and small arms smuggling.

As indicated above, three main legal texts regulate the issue of child soldiers today. First, the two Additional Protocols of 1977 to the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949. Second, the UN CRC of 1989. The 2000 Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts is an attempt to homogenize definitions and minimal ages. Third, the Rome Statute of the ICC adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2002 declares “conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities” is a war crime.

The phenomenon of child soldiers is not limited to developing countries. In the United States, recruitment in the armed forces is permitted at the age of 17 years, on a voluntary basis and with parental permission. Until the age of 18 years, however, they may not be deployed in combat situations. In Canada, the minimum recruiting age into the reserve is 16 years with parental permission, while the regular component is 17 years and deployment may not take place below the age of 18 years. 35 In the United Kingdom, the minimum enlistment age is 16.5 years with parental permission below 18 years of age. The British army argues that approximately 40 per cent of its numbers enlisted at the ages of 16–17 years. 36

International pressure, especially from public opinion and civil society organizations in Northern countries, is strong and resolute. However, we cannot overemphasize the importance of setting examples in this area.

Despite criticism about the enrolment age in Western armed forces, we should not lose sight of the fact that child soldiers are mainly an issue in poor, marginalized, or disputed countries, where state sovereignty is challenged. The majority of child soldiers are members of irregular armed groups.

Combating the phenomenon of child soldiers cannot be limited to addressing its consequences, in the form of DDR programmes. Such programmes take time, are costly, and their results are uncertain. Morally, the issue is difficult to come to terms with. The Paris Principles encourage observers to “consider (child soldiers) primarily as victims of offences against international law; not only as perpetrators”. But we must understand how difficult this is in practice, in the wake of reconciliation and rehabilitation efforts. 37

For psychological and social reasons, we must act ahead of the problem. Through regulation, fighting organized crime and trafficking, partnership, nation-building assistance, and development, we must make the world safer and more responsible.

1 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 , available at http://www.child-soldiers.org/library/global-reports?root_id=159&directory_id=216 (last visited 14 Nov. 2008); Rädda Barnen, Swedish Save the Children, available at: http://www.rb.se/eng/ (last visited 4 Jul. 2008).

2 UNICEF, “Number of Armed Groups or Forces using Child Soldiers increases from 40 to 57”, 12 Feb. 2008, available at: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_42833.html (last visited 14 Nov. 2008).

3 ILO Convention No. 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour, entered into force 19 Nov. 2000.

4 Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/ratification/11_b.htm (last visited 18 Dec. 2008).

5 Paris Principles and Guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/465198442.pdf (last visited 9 Dec. 2008) and reproduced in the Documents Section of this issue.

6 UNSC Resolution 1612 (2005), available at: http://www.undemocracy.com/S-RES-1612(2005).pdf (last visited 14 Nov. 2008).

7 Center for Defense Information, “UN enters ‘era of application’ in its campaign against child soldiers”, 12 Oct. 2005, available at: http://www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=3175 (last visited 14 Nov. 2008).

8 P. Ariès, L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Régime , Paris, Plon, 1960; P. Goubert, La vie quotidienne dans les campagnes françaises au XVIIe siècle , Paris, Hachette, 1982.

9 M. Foucault, Surveiller et punir, Naissance de la prison , Paris, Gallimard, 1975.

10 L. Mysyrowicz, “L’armée suisse et l’éducation nationale”, Revue militaire suisse (RMS) , Thématique histoire militaire, Décembre 2007, 25–9.

11 M. Van Creveld, Technology and War from 2000 BC to the Present , London, Brassey's, 1991.

12 Human Security Report Project, Human Security Report 2005 , Vancouver, Oxford University Press, 2005. See also A. Vautravers (ed.), “Security Forum 2008 Proceedings” in Identity and Conflict , Geneva, Webster, 2008.

13 France, on the contrary, prepared for a long war. It kept 50 per cent of its Air Force in the colonies in order to prepare a second line of battle. Much of this arsenal was not able to take part in the defence of the country, because of the rapidity of the German advance in May–June 1940.

14 A. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , New York, Macmillan, 1970.

15 A. Vautravers, “Les enfants soldats”, Revue militaire uisse (RMS) , Vol. 4, 2008, 42–4.

16 M. Van Creveld, Technology and War from 2000 BC to the Present , op. cit . 11, 4; M. Van Creveld, The Transformation of War , New York, Free Press, 1989.

17 Human Rights Watch, “My Gun was as Tall as Me: Child Soldiers in Burma”, Oct. 2002, available at: http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/burma/ (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

18 Human Rights Watch, “Maoists Should Release Child Soldiers Today”, 6 May 2007, available at: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/05/06/nepal-maoists-should-release-child-soldiers-now (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

19 R. Rosenblatt, Children of War , London, New English Library, 1983.

20 Human Rights Watch, “Colombia: Armed Groups Send Children to War”, available at: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2005/02/21/colombia-armed-groups-send-children-war (last visited 14 Nov. 2008).

21 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 , available at: http://www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org/ (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

22 Global March Against Child Labour, Report on the Worst Forms of Child Labour , 2005, available at: http://www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/bolivia.pdf (last visited 9 Dec. 2008).

23 Human Rights Watch, “Nepal: Maoists Should Release Child Soldiers Now”, available at: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/07/nepal15863.htm (last visited 19 Dec. 2008).

24 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 , op. cit . 21.

25 Paris Principles and Guidelines, op. cit . 5.

26 S. Tawil and A. Harley (eds), Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion , Geneva, UNESCO International Bureau of Education, 2004.

27 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Population Division, “World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision”, database available at: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

28 US Central Intelligence Agency, The 2008 World Factbook , Washington DC, Directorate of Intelligence, 2008, available at: http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

29 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), “Asian Demographic & Human Capital Data Sheet 2008” (chapter 1), available at: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/Papers/gkh1/chap1.htm (last visited 29 Dec. 2008).

31 H.-J. Reichen, “One Year in the MONUC”, in Identity and Conflict, op. cit . 12.

32 G. Bernage and H. Meyer, 12. SS Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend , Caen, Heimdal, 1991.

33 M. Van Creveld, Fighting Power: German and US Army Performance, 1939–1945 , Westport, Greenwood, 1982; M. Van Creveld, Kampfkraft: Militärische Organisation und Militärische Leistung, 1939–1945 , Freiburg, Rombach, 1989.

34 C. Rakisits, “Pakistan's Tribal Areas”, in Identity and Conflict, op. cit . 12.

35 Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting information, “How to join”, available at: http://www.forces.ca/v3/engraph/resources/howtojoin_en.aspx?bhcp=1#be (last visited 4 Jul. 2008).

36 Human Rights Watch, “Child Soldiers in the UK”, available at: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/promises/soldiers.html (last visited 4 Jul. 2008).

37 P. Chapleau, Enfants-soldats: Victimes ou criminels de guerre? , Paris, Rocher, 2007.

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Trauma, Violence, and Memory in African Child Soldier Memoirs

Stacey hynd.

Department of History, University of Exeter, c/o Old Library Mail Room, Prince of Wales Drive, Exeter, EX4 4SB UK

Child soldiers have been heavily involved in contemporary African warfare. Since the 1990s, the ‘child soldier crisis’ has become a major humanitarian and human rights project. The figure of the child soldier has often been taken as evidence of the ‘barbarism’, dehumanization and trauma generated by modern warfare, but such images can obscure the complex reality of children’s experiences of being part of armed groups during conflict. This article uses the published memoirs of former child soldiers from Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to explore the instrumental and discursive nexus between child soldiers, memory, violence and humanitarianism. It assesses how (former-) children combatants remember and recount their experiences of war, and how these narratives can be shaped by humanitarian, literary and/or therapeutic framings. The article argues that these memoirs’ significance lies in their affective truths and what they reveal about children’s experience, and narrations, of war. Former child soldiers engage with, but also challenge, dominant contemporary humanitarian discourses surrounding childhood and violence to develop a ‘victim, savage, saviour, campaigner’ framework for their narratives. The article historically contextualizes the emergence of the ‘child soldier memoir’, before analysing the narratives of recruitment, indoctrination, and violence recounted by these former child soldiers, and their attempts to rework their identities in a post-conflict environment. It explores how former child soldiers narrate suffering and deploy discourses of trauma in their memoirs: some seeking to process wartime traumas, others leveraging their own suffering to position themselves as campaigners for those children still caught in conflict.

Introduction

Children have historically been heavily involved in conflict, as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses, both in Africa and across the world. Global estimates from the 1990s and early 2000s posit that over 300,000 child soldiers were fighting or had recently been demobilized. An estimated 120,000 of those were African, and indeed for most of the 1990–2000s the iconographic image of ‘the child soldier’ was overwhelmingly African—a small, wild-eyed African boy in ragged clothes, brandishing an AK-47 (CSUCS 2008 ). Since the 1990s, the ‘child soldier crisis’ has become a major humanitarian and human rights project, from the United Nations Machel Report in 1996 to the Kony 2012 phenomenon and the #BringBackOurGirls outcry over the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Dominant humanitarian discourses of child soldiering have framed children’s involvement in war as a problem primarily of contemporary, asymmetric, and highly violent warfare, linked to a breakdown of familial and social child protection mechanisms, and driven by forcible recruitment by military commanders. These discourses have tended to reject child agency and accountability, portraying child soldiers as iconic victims of war (see Brett and McCallin 1994 ; Machel 1996 ). The humanitarian appeal of the African child soldier is rooted in how “the brutal existence of a child soldier dovetails neatly with depictions of Africa both as a place of hell and misery and as a continent that, like a child, can be saved” (Mengestu 2007 ). Humanitarian campaigns have highlighted the abduction and forced recruitment of children, depicting child soldiers as brutalized, traumatized victims of adult abuses, whose recruitment violates norms of both war and childhood and whose rescue requires international action (Brett and Specht 2004 ). Humanitarian and human rights-based interventions to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed forces are, however, predicated on a contemporary “transnational politics of age” that enshrines Western-originated, now globalized norms of childhood as a space of innocence, education, and freedom from labour and sexual activity (Rosen 2007 :296–298). These norms have been subject to sustained academic critique and are far from reality for many African communities, where local understandings of childhood are based more on social and physical status rather than chronological age and foreground children’s capacity to be active social agents and productive members of a household, sometimes highlighting the potentially disruptive liminality of children and their capacity for action and violence rather than any innate state of innocence (James and Prout 1990 ; Twum-Danso 2005 ; Nieuwenhuys 2010 ; Shepler 2014 ). The image of the innocent and brutalized child soldier as victim in these contemporary humanitarian campaigns therefore “repeats [a] colonial paternalism where the adult Northerner offers help and knowledge to the infantilised South”, positioning non-governmental organizations as better able to provide for the needs of children than their own families and societies, and pathologizing children’s agency in socially navigating conflict environments (Burman 1994 :241; Lee-Koo 2011 :735; Pupavac 2001 ). What both supports and disrupts these humanitarian discourses are the voices and memories of African child soldiers themselves.

When it comes to accessing memories of conflict, the published memoirs of former child soldiers grant international audiences detailed individual insights into African conflicts and societies in a way that has been managed by very few other voices. This article suggests that whilst sometimes problematic, these memoirs can be productive tools in researching modern African conflict because of what they reveal about how contemporary humanitarian discourses and ideas of trauma shape the narration of war memories, and for what they reveal about the agency and resilience of former child soldiers and the quotidian realities of conflict. The memoirs analysed herein are the ten most widely available commercially published texts written by former child soldiers who were involved civil wars across sub-Saharan Africa spanning from the 1980s to the early 2000s. The most famous of the memoirists are Ishmael Beah and Emmanuel Jal. Beah was forcibly recruited into the Sierra Leonean armed forces during that country’s civil war, and was demobilized into a UNICEF rehabilitation centre in Freetown before relocating to America and writing his memoir, A Long Way Gone , which became an acclaimed bestseller and was even sold in Starbucks coffee shops (2008). Beah has since become a UNICEF advocate for war-affected children, and a novelist. Emmanuel Jal was recruited into the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army [SPLA], surviving life in Pinyudu refugee camp and several military engagements before being taken to Nairobi by Riek Machar’s English wife Emma McCune. A 2008 documentary about his life, War Child, was followed by the publication of his memoir (2009). Jal has since gained international renown as a political activist, rap artist, actor, and founder of the charity Gua Africa. This article also addresses the experiences of two (South) Sudanese ‘Lost Boys’, Deng Adut and Cola Bilkuei, who moved from being SPLA child soldiers to refugees, before settling in Australia (Adut and Mckelvey 2016 ; Bilkuei 2013). Insights into child soldiering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], like South Sudan an ongoing zone of child recruitment, are provided by the memoirs of Lucien Badjoko and Junior Nzita Nsuami, two kadogos (little soldier; child soldier) who served in the Congo Wars (Badjoko and Claren 2005 ; Nzita Nsuami 2016 ). Girls constitute an estimated thirty per cent of child soldiers and their voices are well-represented in memoirs (McKay and Mazurana 2004 ). China Keitetsi gives the earliest account detailed here, covering her time as one of Yoweri Museveni’s kadogos in the Ugandan bush war and after Museveni’s seizure of power in 1986 (2004). From the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA]’s forced recruitment of children in Northern Uganda, memoirs have been written by Grace Akallo, one of the ‘Aboke Girls’ kidnapped by the LRA in 1996, and by Evelyn Amony, who was abducted as a young girl and forced to become one of Joseph Kony’s ‘bush wives’ (McDonnell and Akallo 2007 ; Amony 2015 ). Finally, Senait Mehari provides a contested account of her experiences in a disintegrating Eritrean Liberation Front [ELF] unit in the Eritrean independence struggle against Ethiopia (2006).

This article will put forward two main strands of argument. Firstly, that the historical significance of child soldier memoirs lies not so much in their relating of empirical facts, which are sometimes disputed, but rather in what can be called their affective truths and what they reveal about children’s experiences, and narrations, of war. Secondly, it argues that former child soldiers engage with, but also subtly challenge, dominant contemporary humanitarian discourses surrounding childhood and warfare to develop a ‘victim, savage, saviour, campaigner’ framework for their narratives. The article will open by discussing methodological issues about reading child soldier memoirs historically, before qualitatively analysing the functioning of the affective truths of these texts through their narration of memories of recruitment, indoctrination, combat experience, and their subject’s attempts to rework their identities in a post-conflict environment. It will address notions of ‘victimhood’ and ‘victimcy’ (Utas 2011 ) by looking at memoirists’ accounts of their ruptured innocence and notions of guilt, and address ideas of the ‘savage’ by exploring how violence is narrated. The article will analyse how these child soldier memoirs sit in tension with dominant humanitarian discourses surrounding the—usually white, Western—humanitarian as ‘saviour’ to war-affected children, and how these former child soldiers utilize their stories to position themselves as campaigners for those children still caught in conflict.

This article will use the term child soldier in line with current United Nations categorization to include any person under eighteen years of age who becomes part of an armed group in any capacity, including as a ‘bush wife’ or conjugal slave (UNICEF 1997 ): it should be noted however that the vast majority of child soldiers are teenagers, who sees themselves as youths or young adults (Twum-Danso 2005 ; Shepler 2014 ). Although humanitarian practitioners today prefer the term ‘child [formerly] associated with armed forces or armed groups’ as less potentially stigmatizing, this article retains the term ‘child soldier’ as it is the terminology most often adopted by the memoirists themselves. For clarity, the term memoir will be used throughout, although some of these texts could also be categorized as auto/biography or life writing. There has been considerable debate over whether notions of post-traumatic stress disorder and biomedical or biopsychosocial framings of ‘trauma’ as formulated in the DSM are properly universal and can therefore be applied outside the Western contexts in which they were developed (Summerfield 2000 ; Honwana 2006 :150–156). Memoirs however are not medical texts. This article is not so much concerned with whether or not, or to what extent, these former child soldiers are traumatized, but rather with how they recount suffering and deploy discourses of trauma in their narratives. As Kleinman argues, medicalizing political violence removes the human context of trauma as the chief focus for understanding violence, and those who suffer it should be understood as social sufferers rather than just patients or victims (Kleinman 1988 ; 1995 ). Former child soldiers’ accounts are products both of their individual experiences and memories, and the cultural and societal contexts in which they have grown up, being shaped by collective memories of conflict and displacement in both local African cultures and the West (Kevers et al. 2016 ). This article posits that the suffering expressed by these memoirists is normative for children who have experienced conflict and fighting, rather than pathological, but that many do narrate behaviours and memories that could be classified as ‘traumatic’. An uncritical application of trauma diagnoses in non-Western societies affected by conflict can relabel social suffering as a pathological condition, creating a form of “psychological imperialism” and stressing victimhood rather than recognizing individual and community resilience (Pupavac 2001 ; Fassin and Rechtman 2009 ; Kevers et al. 2016 ; Good and Hilton 2018 :8). Discourses of trauma can also serve to depoliticize and individualize suffering, and medico-humanitarian interventions to alleviate that suffering, leading to a failure to address the structural roots of violence in a society or the global inequalities and political economies that fuel conflict (Lee-Koo 2011 ; Summerfield 2002 ). However, the evidence presented by these memoirs suggests that discourses of trauma do hold value for some former child soldiers, either because they feel traumatised by their experiences, and/or they have learned to express themselves within such discourses to better communicate their suffering as a result of their engagement with humanitarian organizations, therapeutic interventions, or commercial publishing (Verma 2012 ). There is a need for the scholarly analysis of war memories to break away from a simplistic binary relationship between ‘trauma’ and ‘resilience’ which flattens the complexity of human emotions and experiences. For these memoirists, their post-conflict resilience is enhanced through harnessing their own suffering in an attempt to alleviate or prevent the suffering of other war-affected children. Writing their ‘trauma’ and bearing witness to the horrors of war becomes a coping mechanism for these former child soldiers, a moral act of memory, helping to give post hoc reason to their suffering and to assuage the guilt that some of them seem to carry at having survived where their friends and comrades have not.

Reading Child Soldier Memoirs into/as History

The sub-genre of the child soldier memoir emerged from a cultural nexus of the 1990–2000s boom in autobiography and childhood autobiography, the growth of child rights, human rights and liberal humanitarianism, alongside the growing delegitimization of warfare and the development of humanitarian psychiatry, creating what Fassin and Rechtman term a new “moral economy of trauma” (Douglas 2010 ; Burman 1994 ; Barnett 2011 ; Fassin and Rechtman 2009 ). Whilst children’s experiences and voices have historically been marginalized within collective and public histories of war and politics, these African child soldier memoirs and auto/biographical voices have been, if anything, over-privileged in the creation of globalized, collective memories of contemporary conflict in Africa.

It is striking that child soldier memoirs regarding conflicts that occurred prior to the 1980s, even those written more recently, do not notably employ discourses of trauma, rights or victimhood. The memories are instead narrated with a focus on the author’s resilience and agency in becoming a disciplined soldier despite their suffering, and on making a ‘good war’ for themselves as far as their situation allowed, particularly in Second World War memoirs (Kolk and Mandambwe 2007 ). Decolonization-era memoirs tend to pay particular attention to the political mobilization and agency of youth in liberation conflicts (Ferdi 1981 ). Some memoirists even write of war as being in part a positive experience, when they moved from being marginalized children to feeling empowered, respected, and part of a community, as in Talent Chioma Mundy-Castle’s account of her time as a Biafran child spy during the 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War (Mundy-Castle 2012 ). Contemporary child soldier memoirs, however, display a qualitative shift in their politics of memory which are instead enframed by the dominant victimhood-orientated humanitarian, human rights, and trauma discourses which define contemporary accounts of war and violence (Schaffer and Smith 2004 ).

One of the core paradoxes of commercial auto/biography is that memoirist must be both unique and representative in their experiences (Miller 2001 :8). These child soldier memoirs are written by exceptional children-turned-adults: exceptional in that they are literate, were personally supported by Western/international humanitarians, and in that they survived and escaped their conflicts. Many left Africa to seek new lives abroad, moving from soldier to refugee or migrant status, bringing a globalized, expatriate perspective to their accounts, and highlighting the tensions between universal and local norms of childhood, particularly in their experiences of coming of age in a wartime environment (Douglas and Poletti 2016 :100). As Deng Adut writes “[i]n the eyes of my culture, I am still a boy. When I should have been going through the rituals of manhood, I was caught in a vicious war. By the time I was returned to my people, I was very much a Westerner. My feet straddle continents, and also the threshold of manhood” (Adut and Mckelvey 2016 , loc 77). All the memoirists are writing about childhood wartime experiences through their new perspectives as young adults. Life-cycles are important in the framing of traumatic memories, and these memoirs are very much youth narratives, written by young adults who are seeking to establish their identities, their social status, and to claim a position of power from which their voices can be heard and acknowledged (Clifford 2017 ). The normative character and moral economy of the world in which a person grows up and learns to perform their identity shapes the life narratives that they tell—but for those whose lives are disrupted as children, particularly as teenagers whose identities are fluid and liminal, their normative character is affected by both war and peace, by their natal cultures, their militarized identities, and their new post-conflict, often expatriated, lives as activists, writers, and professionals.

The writing in memoirs differs markedly from human rights reports that generally balance empirical data with sentimentalized narratives and affective appeals, combining statistics with excerpted, decontextualized, individual testimony, and striking images (Schaffer and Smith 2004 ). All commercially available memoirs are edited and adapted through the publishing process, but many child soldier memoirs are also co-written, mediated testimonies (Douglas and Poletti 2016 :97–98). Badjoko, Jal, Adut, and Mehari’s memoirs were all collaboratively written with Western journalists/authors, the extent of whose input is left unclear. The language varies sharply, from Jal and Beah’s more poetic, fluid prose, honed by their creative talents as rapper and novelist, respectively, to the more fractured, idiomatic language of Keitetsi. Erin Baines, the American academic who edited from a series of interviews Evelyn Amony’s account of her life in the Lord’s Resistance Army as one of Joseph Kony’s wives, notes that when recollecting traumatic stories Evelyn’s narrative became less comprehensible or sounded detached, and Baines therefore deliberately worked towards a written transcription that captured this reaction (2015:xx). Tellingly, the memoirs of Lucien Badjoko, one of Laurent Kabila’s kadogo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], were co-written with a French journalist, Katia Clarens, after she met him in a DDR [disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration] camp and he informed her “I have written a short script of my life if you are interested” (2005:7). 1 Badjoko here displays a variant of what Utas terms victimcy tactics: children expressing agency through identifying themselves as powerless victims and appropriating humanitarian tropes to secure funds, resources or protection (Utas 2011 ; Verma 2012 ). As Kleinman argues, trauma stories have become a currency that social sufferers of political violence and conflict exchange to claim new status as refugees (Kleinman 1995 :177–188). Both Cola Bilkuei and Deng Adut, former SPLA child soldiers from South Sudan who relocated to Australia, learned to craft and commoditize their life stories to support themselves as they transitioned from military life to refugee and immigrant status. Bilkuei began to shape his narrative to his audience when moving between East African countries and refugee camps seeking aid, and first wrote his life story to be ranked in order of need by the UNHCR in Kenya in 1996: “I started to think about telling my story to anyone who would listen, hoping they would give me money in exchange. Not for the first or last time, my life story was becoming my meal ticket. It might be odd, for an Australian, to see your life story as your sole economic asset. But for me and other Sudanese who have little else to sell, it was a natural thing to do” (2013:153). Ishmael Beah was sent to the United Nations in New York as a child soldier representative and was there drawn to the woman who would become his adoptive mother, Laura Simms, because “[s]he said she would teach us how to tell our stories in a more compelling way” to engage with international audiences (2008:196).

When many former child soldiers crafted their texts, they therefore had practice at producing the range of narrative elements that Western readers and editors have come to expect, as well as drawing on oral storytelling traditions from their own cultures (Moynagh 2011 :48; Beah 2008 :217–218). Unlike human rights reports or truth commission testimonies which are focused on establishing factual accounts of conflict, memoirs, like child soldier novels, often display a marked ahistoricity, eliding context, time and space, and blurring the boundaries between history, memory, and narrative truth: historical and political context to the conflicts they fight in is replaced by an overarching framework of human rights abuses and humanitarian narratives (Coundouriotis 2010 ). The preferred narrative framework is one of innocence disrupted by war, violence, and trauma, then humanitarian salvation and recovery, with a corresponding disavowal of violence. It is perhaps significant that those memoirs which most closely follow this framework, like Beah and Jal’s, are those which have become the best-selling and most widely lauded by both public and humanitarian sources. Child soldier memoirs are strongly influenced by humanitarian discourses of child soldiering that code children’s involvement in war as an adult-perpetrated human rights abuse caused by social breakdown and hyper-violent, non-rule bound contemporary conflict, and which reject child agency and culpability (see Machel 1996 ). The memoirs, however, both challenge and support these discourses (Schultheis 2008 ; Mackey 2013 ; Mastey 2018 ). Where they primarily challenge those discourses is in the much higher level of agency they accord themselves—however tactical or circumscribed that agency is—and in the significance of that agency to their survival and salvation, rather than expressing a reliance on external, humanitarian rescue (Honwana 2006 :50–51; Drumbl 2012 :98–101).

Makau Mutua writes that contemporary human rights narratives about Africa routinely follow a framework of ‘Savage, Victim, Saviour’ (Mutua 2001 ), detailing violence and establishing victimhood to justify external intervention and rescue. Paraphrasing Mutua, this article argues that child soldier memoirs follow instead a framework of ‘Victim, Savage, Saviour, Campaigner’, establishing child soldiers as victims of war and military recruitment, who enact and experience violence before being rescued—or rescuing themselves—and seeking to help prevent others suffering their fate. All of the memoirists now campaign against the use of child soldiers, and many explicitly state that their narratives were written to assist these campaigns and bear witness to the violence committed against child soldiers: as Emmanuel Jal sings in his song ‘War Child’, ‘I believe I’ve survived for a reason, To tell my story, to touch lives’ (Jal and Davies 2009 :257). One of the kidnapped Aboke girls from Northern Uganda, Grace Akallo, rhetorically asks herself why she has survived in the LRA, escaping death in raids, from beatings, and even multiple suicide attempts. She credits God for her survival and eventual escape from captivity, but believes that for survival to have a purpose: “Surely there was a reason I had escaped death. Maybe I might help change the ten-year-old war… God if You let me go back…I will fight for the children who become victims in this war. They cannot speak” (McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :113, 125–126). Akallo developed this theme in her testimonies to the UN Security Council and the US House of Representatives, telling the House that what she had faced during her abduction was “beyond fear” and that she was not there to “evoke emotions without action” but to plead for justice and accountability against those who recruit child soldiers (US House of Representatives 2008 ; UN SRSGCAC 2009 ). Beah asserts that “my own trauma is a small price to pay to expose what continues to happen to children all over the world” (Beah 2008 :3). These memoirs are performative of a new form of identity for many former child soldiers: that of the empowered ‘victim’ turned ‘campaigner’. Where possible, these memoirs should be read paratextually within the context of wider humanitarian coverage of child soldiering and the author’s own websites, interviews, TED talks, and other cultural productions. Nzita Nsuami’s memoir If My Life as a Child Soldier Could be Told was presented to the UN mission in the DRC and is prefaced by Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who supports Nzita Nsuami in using “his experience for the benefit of many other child soldiers”, with proceeds of the memoir going to his organization Paix pour l’enfance (Nzita Nsuami 2016 , first preface). The memoirists have all been active in campaigning against the recruitment of child soldiers and other related rights abuses. They have worked with groups such as UNICEF, Human Rights Watch and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers to voice their campaign appeals and spoken about child soldiering at the United Nations, as well as setting up their own organizations, such as Jal’s Gua Africa, or worked locally with rehabilitation and reintegration projects for former child soldiers and refugees.

Empirical, Narrative, and Affective Truth in Memoirs

As a body of evidence, child soldier memoirs sit amongst therapeutic writing, testimony, human rights reporting, humanitarian campaigning, coming of age narratives, post-colonial life history, and oral storytelling. As Kate Douglas argues, they are products of, and confrontations with, cultural memory (Douglas 2010 :20). Historically speaking, their narratives sit between empirical or forensic truths, narrative or personal truths, and what can be called affective truths. The term affective truth is used here to argue that these narratives are specifically crafted to prompt an emotional response or “empathic unsettlement” in their readers through authoritative accounts of the—purported—reality of child soldier experience, and to thereby generate humanitarian sentiments and actions from readers (LaCapra 2014 ). This is not to say that this affective truth does not also stem from a genuine emotion that the author needs to process and convey, but rather that in the published memoir this emotion is deployed to convey the veracity of experience and is leveraged to prompt a particular response in the reader.

There are perennial ethical and methodological debates over the ‘truthfulness’ or factual nature of memoirs, particularly regarding accounts like those of Ishmael Beah and Senait Mehari who have come under attack by the media and other former child soldiers in their units for misrepresenting duration of their involvement for or appropriating others’ stories (Sanders 2011 :206–207). Beah notes of his time in the Sierra Leonean army that “My mind had not only snapped during the first killing, it had also stopped making remorseful records, or so it seemed” but then also recounts his military experiences in great detail with extensive dialogue, asserting he has a photographic memory (Beah 2008 :122, 51). The historical utility of memoirs is not primarily linked to forensic or empirical truths, establishing the facts of what happened, as is the case with human rights reports. But these texts are not simple narrative truths either, nor just an individual’s memories of war. What is most significant is how, and why, former child soldiers feel compelled to relate their memories. Their accounts speak to what Baines terms the “ethical significance” of the events they experienced (Amony 2015 :xxi). Childhood autobiographies today are commonly marketed according to their political and sociological worth, their virtue signalled in their promise of didacticism and their exposure of social injustices (Douglas 2010 :61). In African child soldier memoirs, this didacticism and exposure operates through the crafting of an affective truth that is framed by notions of violence, suffering, and trauma, contrasting with the innocence and protection that is assumed to be due to children under universal norms of childhood in contemporary geopolitical frameworks (Burman 1994 ; Mastey 2018 ). Child soldier narratives and images have become so prominent within contemporary humanitarian iconography precisely because child soldiers violate established generational and moral norms, and complicate notions of child victimhood and apolitical status with the juxtaposition of their imbued innocence and violent action: they are profane figures that disrupt the affective and semiotic apparatus of humanitarian concern (Malkki 2015 :2, 8). Humanitarian advocacy has to balance highlighting the danger occasioned by (as well as for) child soldiers to raise awareness with establishing that they are still redeemable in order to convince audiences of the efficacy of intervention, a balance the memoirists help establish.

‘Victims’ to ‘Savages’: Innocence, Violence, and Narrative Rupture

The memoirs nearly all take on a chronological, broadly Bildungsroman structure stretching from childhood innocence, to the rupture of their entry into an armed group, through the horrors of war to their escape and salvation, and then their struggles to re-adjust to civilian life and eventual empowerment through their personal success and activism. Some open with a nostalgic account of their childhood and the perceived happiness and security of an idyllic family life, with Grace Akallo recalling “[t]he village I knew as a child was a special place. We children felt loved and taken care of…there was never any news of a child being harmed”, cherishing a sense of community and family (McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :48–49). Others challenge normative, Western assumptions of childhood innocence as a state of ‘not-knowing’ and demonstrate how the conflict had disrupted their domestic security and happiness even before their recruitment by an armed group as they were exposed to fighting through attacks on their villages (Beah 2008 ; Amony 10–13). Some memoirists conversely highlight their domestic marginalization and lay blame for their entry into armed groups not just on the soldiers who took them, but also upon their families for failing to protect them. Mehari details the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, but claims she understands the rationality of his decision to hand her and two sisters over to the ELF to reduce the strain on the family’s limited food supplies and prevent them all starving (Mehari 2006:53). Keitetsi recalls the domestic abuse that drove her to voluntarily seek enlistment with the NRA whilst Amony locates her abduction by the LRA within her father’s failure to pay her school fees, as she was captured after being sent away from school (Keitetsi 2004 :52–112; Amony 2015 :147).

Humanitarian discourses surrounding child soldiering have focused on forced recruitment and abduction as the primary vectors of recruitment. The 1996 Machel Report for the United Nations, the foundational text for contemporary interventions on child soldier issues, issues a stark denial of voluntary recruitment, asserting that children lack the capacity for such agency: “While young people may appear to choose military service, the choice is not exercised freely”, and is instead shaped by external forces (Machel Report 1996 :17). Certainly a number of these memoirs demonstrate the prevalence of forced recruitment and abduction (McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :93–4; Amony 2015 :16–18; Nzita Nsuami 2016 ). Bilkuei and Adut were both given up by their families in the face of SPLA coercion as part of village quotas for recruitment, whilst Beah was forced to choose between joining the army at gunpoint or being left without protection or resources (Bilkuei 2013 :27–29; Adut and Mckelvey 2016 ; Beah 2008 :106). However, as recent studies have shown, many children do demonstrate limited, tactical agency comparable to that of adult recruits in their recruitment (Honwana 2006 ; ILO 2003 ). This is borne out in the accounts of Keitetsi, and of Badjoko who, aged twelve, voluntarily joined the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire [AFDL] alongside his school friends and recalls how “A fire started burning in my stomach. I think about the films I watch every day on video at home…Schwarzenegger, Norris…I really admire them. I’d like to take up a weapon too…We’ve got to liberate the country from tyranny” (Keitetsi 2004 :114; Badjoko and Clarens 2005 :18).

Most of the memoirs contain a “narrative trajectory of rupture” (and later restoration) in their moral framework, with the moment of entry into an armed group framed as a destructive form of rebirth. 2 New recruits were stripped of their old identities and resocialized into the cultures and power hierarchies of armed groups, which were often framed as new ‘family’ units to capitalize on juvenile loyalties and disciplinary structures (Nzita Nsuami 2016 :III; Dallaire 2011 :102–104; Wessells 2006 :57–78). Jal remembers SPLA leader John Garang telling the young recruits at Pinyudu to “[a]lways remember that the gun is your father and your mother now” (2009:96). Processes of military training, indoctrination, and dehumanization generated the moral rupture necessary to inure children to violence and killing, whilst physical violence hardened their bodies to suffering in preparation for war. Discourses of revenge were potent in generating hatred towards the enemy: “visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you” (Beah 2008 :112). This was sometimes supplemented by calls for regime change, the creation of a better, more equal society—or just personal empowerment and enrichment. Taken together, such processes were often successful in remodelling children into soldiers primed to fight for their new commanders. Badjoko remarks that “I have become someone dangerous and I love it. Yes, I am a killer’ and ‘Power is good. I get a kick from it every day. I like to see people move aside as I go by” ( 2005 :80). For many teenage boys in particular, violence formed an attractive and accessible pathway to manhood, with militarized hegemonic youth masculinities based on the power and social status garnered through displays of force and the skills, discipline, and knowledge developed to become an effective soldier. As such, despite their post-conflict rejection of violence, former boy soldiers frequently reflect back on their training and early combat experiences with an ambivalent pride. As Jal notes before his first attack “I was a man, not a coward. We had AK-47 s. We are brave and strong. We were trained fighters who would win this war” (2009, 101). Activities normatively associated with childhood innocence, like play, surface episodically throughout the memoirs, but usually to highlight the loss or corruption of that innocence (see Stargardt 2006 ; Mastey 2017 ). Beah contrasts his happy memories of playing soccer as a boy with the horror of shooting other child soldiers across a soccer pitch, recalling sitting on their corpses to eat their food whilst “blood leaked from the bullet holes in their bodies” (2008:19). Mehari recalls how ‘play’ became denoted as a juvenile activity that older children avoided to signal their transition to militarized identities and superior ‘adult’ status (2006:70). Yet not all children were successfully militarized; for some, their identities remained liminal or compartmentalized, struggling alternatively to lose or to retain their civilian identities and moralities. China Keitetsi, a former kadogo with Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army [NRA] in Uganda, noted that “I had come so far but I never seemed to harden. It was strange to see most other children having a kind of lust for killing and torturing…It annoyed me that I always had to feel sorry for others, even the enemy” (Keitetsi 2004 :134).

Violence as a Currency of Legitimacy?

Violence was at the core of child soldier experiences, and for boys was central to the development of militarized masculinities. Badjoko extensively details the importance of physical violence, and its emotional impacts, in recasting his identity from civilian to soldier: “I take shape every day. Brutally. The machine guns rattle—I evolve. A friend whose legs are torn off dies in my arms—I grow up. I torture a prisoner—I advance” ( 2005b , Acte 2). Former child soldiers typically narrate their first kill as the defining moment in their transition from civilian to military life. Beah similarly gives a graphic account of being ordered to slit a prisoner’s throat as part of a training contest. “The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man’s head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out. His eyes rolled up and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance…The boys and the other soldiers who were the audience clapped as if I had just fulfilled one of life’s greatest achievements” (2008:125). The narration of such extreme violence serves in these memoirs to highlight the shock of the fall, the rupturing of childhood innocence, indicating the depths of savagery from which these child soldiers need to be recovered. The narrative depiction of killing in modern war memoirs has shifted in line with wider attitudes towards violence and the legitimacy of war, moving from the reticent to the brutally explicit (Bourke 1999 ). Soldiers have transformed in popular discourses from ‘sacrificial victims’ to ‘crazed killers’ or, increasingly, to ‘traumatised veterans’ (Cobley 1994 :91). In African child soldier narratives, they are expected to have been all of the above: child/soldier and savage/victim, highlighting the essential liminality of the child combatant. A new “spectacle of suffering” is driving humanitarian constructions of violence (Foucault 1975 ). Victimhood has become commodified and mediatized in global discourses (Kleinman 1995 :188). Violence in these child soldier memoirs therefore becomes a currency of legitimacy, a currency that establishes the extremes of suffering caused and endured, extremes which are necessary to build a successful narrative of redemption and humanitarian support and thereby gain traction in a crowded market of victimhood, which is a prerequisite for generating subsequent concern and action (Hynd 2018 ). Beah’s narratives of excessive violence aim to establish the authenticity of his status as both victim and perpetrator, drawing the reader in as a witness, a necessary step in a cycle of disclosure that constructs an identity in order to better provoke an empathetic response: as readers we will not wish to be a ‘saviour’ if we are not sufficiently horrified by the ‘savage’.

This currency of legitimacy is however a gendered framework: for girl soldiers, their legitimacy and authority as memoirists and spokespersons on child soldier issues is claimed not through killing but through their suffering of violence, particularly sexual violence (Hynd forthcoming). However, cultural taboos and silencing around sexual violence shape these narratives: girl soldier memoirs tend to recount their experiences of rape and sexual abuse in a very sparing and matter of fact manner, the detail and the emotion is starkly restrained, and the horror remains largely unspoken (Mehari 2006:125; McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :110–112). The narration of trauma is clearly gendered in these accounts. The differently gendered accounts, by male and female memoirists, have a different force of affective truth—the male narratives from what they provide in surfeit, the female from what they suppress and leave implicit. 3

For many child soldiers, their memories are shaped not just by exceptional moments of violence, but by the quotidian realities of conflict: the daily struggles to survive in harsh environments: Mehari notes that she “could not have cared less who the enemy was. My personal enemies were hunger, thirst, the heat, the rats, the hyenas, the relentless military training and the heavy Kalashnikov that I now had to lug around with me all the time” ( 2006 :85). This chronic suffering weighed severely on many children. As Cola Bilkuei recalled “I felt like an old man, worn down by the life that had been handed to me” (2013:93). The apparent frequency of self-inflicted violence and suicide mentioned in the memoirs is indicative of the emotional distress sustained by many child combatants who were unable to socially navigate the violence that surrounded them (Keitetsi 2004 :2; McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :125; Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :63). Whilst some child soldiers regard themselves as powerful actors, others find themselves dehumanized and part of an exploitable infrahumanity, both because they are children and because they feel broken by the violence they had experienced (Mbembe 2003 :32–34). Bilkuei recalls his fears of becoming dehumanized by his time in Pinyudo, a refugee camp in Ethiopia where many of the SPLA’s ‘Lost Boys’ were held, “I was afraid… If I stayed there, I knew that the need to survive would turn me into an animal” (2013:76). As Keitetsi writes “many acted like robots that only did what our new creators desired. If we were ‘out of order’ we would be sent to the front line to die, sending our memory into oblivion” ( 2004 :125). Regarding the impact of violence and trauma on memory, most of these memoirs display a particular “acoustic register” which focuses not just on sights, but particularly on sounds and smells (Hunt 2008 ). Jal and Beah both talk about the “Pictures. Pictures. In my head” that repeatedly flash through their memories, but Jal also notes that as part of these: “My time at the front line taught me just one new thing about war—the worst is when it is over. As the battle falls silent, only the screams of the injured can be heard, and when the guns stop firing and the smell of smoke fades away, the stench of flesh and blood fills the air” (Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :158, 144). Jal states that he could not eat meat for days after a battle because it reminded him of the smell of burning flesh, whilst another former SPLA jenajesh (child soldier) Deng Adut recalls the smell of a battle’s aftermath turning his stomach and never really getting his appetite back (Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :158; Adut and Mckelvey 2016 :loc 1014).

Trauma, Guilt, and Memory

For many child soldiers, avoidance of painful memories and their triggers becomes a pragmatic, culturally appropriate, and often effective coping strategy for the psychological and emotional trauma sustained in conflict, particularly in societies like Sierra Leone where “social forgetting”, a collective avoidance of relating memories of social suffering, is the preferred memory practice, rather than truth-telling (Shaw 2007 ; Boothby 2006 ). Memoirists however forgo that coping strategy when they start to write down their memories and narratives. Contemporary African child soldier memoirs are suffused with discourses of trauma and suffering. It is something of a paradox that theoretical discussions often depict violence and pain as essentially unknowable and unspeakable, but that talking and writing are advocated as therapies to heal the victim/sufferer (Miller 2001 :6). There is of course a wider philosophical and methodological question as to how, and whether, trauma can be accurately written. As Scarry has argued, pain and violence ‘unmake[s] the world’, whilst Žižek stresses the difference between factual ‘truth’ and ‘truthfulness’ in narrating violence and trauma where the reported content ‘contaminates’ the manner of reporting (Scarry 1985 ; Žižek 2009 :3–4). Despite concerns over its factual accuracy, Mehari’s account of her life still provides a useful example of the memoir as therapeutic writing, having been written after six years in therapy: “Now that I have written everything down, I am free” ( 2006 :x). Keitetsi was also advised to write her memoir Child Soldier as a form of therapy: “I just wrote for the sake of emptying myself of the stones that I could feel breaking my shoulders. This book has helped me to come to terms with my past, and helped me come closer to myself” ( 2004 :ix–x). Most of the former child soldiers cited here seem to have written memoirs at least in part as a way of processing their experiences and coming to terms with themselves. It is worth noting however that the labels ‘trauma’ and ‘traumatized’ are much more frequently applied paratextually in interviews, campaigns, or reviews than in the memoir texts themselves. Ethnographic studies suggest that some former child soldiers learn how to ‘perform’ recovery, adopting learned social scripts and discourses of rehabilitation in order to gain support and community acceptance, which raises questions over the efficacy of therapeutic interventions in rehabilitation programming (Verma 2012 ). Concerns regarding the universality of trauma diagnoses and talking therapies have led to the increasing use of more culturally relativistic, psychosocial forms of therapy in rehabilitation programmes for demobilized child soldiers, with a focus on art therapy, dance, sport, and group counselling (Honwana 2006 :150–156; Boothby 2006 ; Shepler 2014 :67–71).

For many child soldiers, including the memoirists, it was after escape or demobilization, with the resultant dislocation from their militarized lives and survival strategies, that the full impact of their experiences emerged and memories of violence became overwhelming. After Keitetsi escaped from Uganda to South Africa, the UNHCR sent her to a trauma therapist. She recalls from her sessions that “I was so afraid to remember…I was so overwhelmed by emotions…I lost control of myself and everything erupted in my mind at once, twenty-four hours a day” ( 2004 :262). Years afterwards, Keitetsi notes “[d]espite this new freedom…I still feel the abuse and humiliation, scars which my body carries still, scars that sometimes make me feel like washing off my skin” (Keitetsi 2004 :xi). This embodiment of pain and violence persists for many. Physical and emotional suffering or trauma informs even the methodology of writing. Beah reveals in a published interview that bookends his memoirs that writing required a “reawakening of happy and painful memories, and a deep exploration of them, regardless of the difficulties, physical, emotional and psychological” ( 2008 :endtext 11). Jal writes in his afterword about how “[i]t has been hard for me to tell my story—even physically painful at times as I’ve freed memories buried deep inside. Sometimes my nose bled uncontrollably or dreams would trap me until I woke up to see war still flashing before my eyes” (Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :41, 61). Intrusive recollections continued to affect many of the memoirists after their escape from warzones, with some recollections seemingly linked to residual feelings of guilt. Beah tells of how “I would dream that a faceless gunman had tied me up and begun to slit my throat with the edge of his bayonet. I would feel the pain that the knife inflicted as the man sawed my neck. I’d wake up sweating and throwing punches in the air”, recalling earlier descriptions of his own initiation into killing (Beah 2008 :149).

There is a methodological question as to exactly how useful memoirs are for histories of emotion: do memoirs as ego-documents accurately reveal the feelings and sentiments that the writers experienced during conflict, or are those feelings recast through the process of remembering and relating, with memoirs becoming simply presentist documents? Certainly within these memoirs, former child soldiers’ memories will doubtless have been reframed by their post-conflict lives and by humanitarian discourses. However, emotions linked to war experience are often sufficiently profound—fear, guilt, rage, despair, hope—to have been firmly imprinted on an individual’s memories. Feelings of guilt are a useful example to highlight here. Moral and legal debates abound over whether or not, or to what extent, child soldiers are culpable for their actions in war: are they victims, perpetrators or both? (Drumbl 2012 :102–135). International law and humanitarian actors take the position that child soldiers should not be held accountable for their actions, that they are “deviant products of adult abuse” and lack the requisite legally relevant agency to bear responsibility for crimes they commit (Rosen 2007 :297). However, child soldiers’ narratives frequently repudiate the “legal fiction” of the non-violent child, and former child soldiers themselves contend with feelings of guilt, highlighting the complexity of the relationship between culpability and guilt (Sanders 2011 :199). Some seem to bear a form of survivor’s guilt, their trauma rooted in the “enigma of survival” as their friends suffered and died, before finding a rationale for their survival in their new identities as humanitarian campaigners and activists (Caruth 1996 :58: McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :181, 190, 194–195). Others, like Nzita Nsuami, assert a religious basis for their survival and adopt a more explicitly Christian discourse of seeking forgiveness: “I am asking for forgiveness from all those to whom I caused harm with the weapons I was made to carry as a child soldier and may they find my repentance expressed in this piece of writing” (Nzita Nsuami 2016 :loc. 37).

The guilt that former child combatants feel for the actions they committed in war is rarely explicitly discussed in the memoirs, but it forms an undercurrent to their narration of the violence they participated in, and the intrusive memories which continue to affect them after demobilization. Struggles with feelings of guilt are more prominent in boy soldiers’ memoirs, due to gendered currencies of legitimacy that for males focus on the perpetration of violence and the need to reject such violence in order to claim ‘civilian’ status. Jal notes that “I feel no guilt because I was a child who took part in in killings as the hatred and sorrow built up over years was released in mob violence. I did not kill in cold blood, I killed in war. But that day has tormented me” ( 2009 :265). For many, violence could be normalized and justified at the time of its enactment as a survival strategy within dangerous warscapes. Deng Adut’s most horrified memories center around the torture, killing, and burning of Didinga tribespeople in retaliation for killing an SPLA soldier. “‘We had killed these people, but it didn’t matter. There was so much death around, it did not matter… ‘We were all dead anyway,’ I thought. It was just that some of us didn’t know it yet” ( 2016 :loc 1014). But when reflecting back upon what Adut terms the “mad morality of childhood” as young adults, wartime actions can be reinterpreted through newly adopted (or recovered) moral registers. Adut recalls the killing of the Didinga tribesmen: “When I was a boy, I had been able to put the visions of their melting faces aside because that atrocity had happened in a time and place of endless violence… I hadn’t taken on the weights of those deaths in Sudan, because there was no suggestion that I should feel the shame of their murder”. When he moved to Australia and became a lawyer, however, Adut accepted that he had been “involved in an outrage” and suffers recurring nightmares about their killing: “I think perhaps the torture and murder dreams are a reminder that I owe a debt to the world that I can never repay but must forever try to” ( 2016 :loc 2519–2525). If anything, discussions of feelings of guilt and shame seem to be less about an affective truth that aims to generate action from the reader, and more an internal struggle for self-acceptance.

Saviours and Campaigners: Military Demobilization & Activist Re-mobilization

Despite being written within and broadly in support of contemporary humanitarian discourses against children’s participation in war, the memoirs are often critical of humanitarian interventions into African conflicts and the forms of child-saving that have taken place (Douglas and Poletti 2016 :102–104). Accounts from ‘Lost Boys’ in SPLA and refugee camps in Ethiopia recount in great detail the hardships of life in these camps and the minimal amount of humanitarian aid they actually received. Jal in particular recounts how the SPLA manipulated the khawajas (Westerners, aid workers) to secure more supplies, but also later reflects on the structural and racial inequality of global humanitarian actions (Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :70–73, 181, 249–252; Adut with Mckelvey 2016 :loc 1393). Jal, Beah, and Adut were all helped to relocate away from warzones by individual Western women, and as such the memoirs promote the importance of the individual—usually white—saviour figure who breaks humanitarian norms of neutrality to care for the child as a surrogate parent or alternative family member, going beyond regulations to find practical ways to support the former child soldier: a potentially empowering affective truth for the reader who sees the difference one person’s actions can make. But, for the memoirists, these interventions must be based on children’s emotional and material needs, not those of the reader/donor as is common in contemporary humanitarian discourses (see Chouliaraki 2012 ). Nearly all of the memoirs express a desire for more, and better, intervention that is responsive to children’s varied needs. Tellingly, the memoir that most explicitly draws on humanitarian discourses of trauma, Nzita Nsuami’s account of his life in the DRC, does so to assert that existing rehabilitation programs for child soldiers fail to adequately address children’s needs for therapy and counselling and to call for more such resources, a call supported in the foreword by the UN Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict (Nzita Nsuami 2016 :xx). Conversely, Adut makes the point that he wanted strong men whom he could respect and who could provide him with discipline to help him rehabilitate and assimilate to his new life in Australia rather than “well-intentioned, but painfully underprepared therapists” (Adut with Mckelvey 2016 :loc 1618).

The memoirs confirm the importance of gender-sensitive rehabilitation and reintegration, for both male and female soldiers (MacKenzie 2012 ; Shepler 2014 ). Jal recalls how after he had been taken out of the SPLA by Riek Machar’s wife Emma McCune to live with her in Nairobi: “It made me angry when she said [that he was too young to be a soldier]. I wasn’t a boy. I was a soldier, and at night my dreams haunted me more than they ever had…Sometimes Emma would try to cuddle me, but I didn’t like it. She was a woman, who should not see my fear” (Jal and Lloyd Davies 2009 :88). Militarized identities for boy soldiers are strongly linked to wartime ideas of hegemonic masculinity and attaining ‘adult’ status and power, making demobilization a disempowering rupture for many. In Beah’s account, being repeatedly told “[i]t is not your fault” by civilian workers in the DDR camp antagonised boys who resented the implied lack of agency, and he only slowly came to adopt the humanitarian perspective of himself as a ‘victim’ (Beah 2008 :140). Girl soldiers meanwhile, particularly those who have experienced sexual violence and become mothers, face high risks of family and community rejection, and often require additional healthcare, childcare, and vocational training for self-sufficiency (Amony 2015 ; MacKay and Mazurana 2004 ).

The memoirs also complicate humanitarian discourses of salvation in the significance they reveal of children’s own agency in exiting armed groups. Seven of the ten memoirists make the decision to escape or demobilize, often at great personal risk. Like many other LRA abductees, Grace Akallo escaped from an LRA camp in Sudan during a battle with Ugandan forces, deciding “it was time to live” and leading other scared and starving children in a trek across dangerous territory back towards Uganda (McDonnell and Akallo 2007 :126, 140–141, 156–162, 173–181). The fortitude, resilience, and capacity for tactical thought that was crucial to the children’s survival as soldiers also helped them exit military life and shaped their post-conflict identities, aiding their determination to become activists and campaigners and help save other war-affected children.

Conclusions

So what then do the published memoirs of former child soldiers from various African warzones reveal about the relationship between memory, trauma, and conflict? These memoirs do reveal significant details about what happened in their respective conflicts, especially about the lived realities of war for child combatants, providing a useful corrective to the often decontextualized narratives excerpted in news or human rights reporting (Moynagh 2011 :39). But more significantly, their memoirs are representative of a desire to be “both a model and symbol” of the possibility of rehabilitation and reintegration for other child combatants and war-affected children (Nzita Nsuami 2016 :loc. 49, 1028). These memoirs also form part of the authors’ post-conflict coping mechanisms to deal with the mental and emotional impacts of their war experiences. For some, the act of writing processes war-time trauma, aiding in the recovery of lost or submerged memories that can bolster the (re-)establishment of their civilian identities. For others, writing memoirs serves to leverage their suffering towards efforts to ‘save’ other war-affected children, bringing post hoc reason to their ordeals and purpose to their survival. These memoirs are products of contemporary global rights agendas and humanitarian discourses (and commercial publishing agendas) but they successfully highlight the interrelation and coincidence of suffering and resilience, trauma, and agency, and how despite the extremity of some of these memoirists’ distress, they have still been able to survive, and move beyond simple narratives of victimhood to play an active role in society and seek to help others. On a final level then, these memoirs are crafted to impart particular affective truths about conflict with the aim of generating empathy and action. The ‘victim, savage, saviour, campaigner’ narrative framework highlights the rupture and recovery in their moral values, drawing the reader in by revealing the physical and psychological horrors of child soldiers’ lives in war, which particularly focus on their recruitment, indoctrination, and experiences of violence. The narrative framings of the texts also highlight the role of violence as a gendered currency of legitimacy in humanitarian campaigns and memoirs, and its importance in generating emotional reactions in readers with the hope of thereby boosting engaged activism. Considering current concerns about the rise of ‘clicktivism’, as a result of digital social media-led ‘post-humanitarian’ campaigns like Kony 2012 and #BringBackOurGirls, and how they de-emotionalize humanitarian engagement and perpetuate a political culture of narcissism among Western donor-consumers, limiting effective action, perhaps then the affective truths revealed by these memoirs and the voices of their African authors can, and should, take an increased role in speaking out against the targeting and exploitation of children in war, and other related social ills (Chouliaraki 2012 ).

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the peer reviewers and participants in the ‘Children, Politics and Conflict’ conference, Exeter, 20–21 October 2017 for their helpful and constructive feedback. I also wish to thank Ana Antic, Kirrily Pels, and my colleagues Rebecca Williams and Emily Bridger for their valuable suggestions and support.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Stacey Hynd declares that she has no conflict of interest.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

1 There are two versions of Badjoko’s memoirs publicly available: the 2005 book and a version available at http://www.grands-reporters.com/J-etais-enfant-soldat.html . All translations mine.

2 Many thanks to Nicholas Stargardt for this point. Notably, in the ongoing trial of Dominic Ongwen, who was abducted as a young boy by the LRA only to become a brigade commander within the group and is now facing war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court, his defence team is building their case around Ongwen’s ‘arrested childhood’, suggesting that his normative moral development was halted at the moment of his abduction and thereby claiming diminished responsibility for his wartime actions. Many thanks to Tim Allen for this information. See International Criminal Court, The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen , ICC-02/04-01/15. https://www.icc-cpi.int/uganda/ongwen .

3 Accounts of girls as perpetrators of violence are largely absent from published memoirs and humanitarian discourses, as such accounts challenge both childhood and gender norms.

Submitted as part of proposed special issue—Ana Antic and Kirrily Pels (eds.), Children, Politics and Violence.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Child Soldiers in Africa: A singular Phenomenon?

Deputy Project Director for West Africa at International Crisis Group.

Jean-Hervé Jézéquel first worked as a Consultant for Crisis Group in Guinea in 2003, before joining as the Senior Analyst for the Sahel region in March 2013. He has also worked as a Field Coordinator in Liberia, a West Africa Researcher and a Research Director, for Médecins sans Frontières.

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The much publicized figure of the child soldier in Africa is placed in context in this historiographical survey: the author ties it to the general subject of children in war – which has affected America and Europe at different times – and reveals the necessity of developing a history of child status in Africa.

In the case of the African conflicts, the issue of children in war was initially the prerogative of humanitarian organizations. Moreover, interest in this issue is relatively recent. In the 1990s, sub- Saharan Africa was marked by a long series of civil conflicts (in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast, etc .). In international opinion, the heavy use of child soldiers constitutes one of the principal characteristics of these post-Cold War African crises. Indeed, the image of the African child bearing a Kalashnikov bigger than himself has come to symbolize a typically African brand of violence, to Western eyes a barbaric violence beyond the bounds of the acceptable and the rational.

NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, or the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers have led active campaigns against the use of child soldiers. Though these organizations have drawn attention to the participation of children in conflicts from Latin America (Colombia) to the Near East (Palestine) and even Asia (Burma), Africa is often presented as the continent hardest hit by this “unacceptable practice”. Seven out of nine reports put out by Human Rights Watch on the use of child soldiers in the last ten years concern sub-Saharan African countries.

These humanitarian campaigns have encouraged and supported the international community’s adoption of conventions restricting the recruitment of minors in wartime and more generally (re-) affirming the rights associated with childhood. If special protection has been granted to children in wartime since the Geneva Convention of 1949, the child soldier did not make its way into international humanitarian discourse until 1977, with the introduction of additional protocols. It was not until 1989 that the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which today is one of the documents most widely ratified by member states. This body of international conventions underwent its first serious test during the conflicts that marked the African continent in the 1990s. It served as a legal foundation for the conviction of several parties and armed movements who resorted to the use of minors. The most recent such group is the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), whose leaders, after nineteen years of fighting in Uganda, were accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes, notably the kidnapping and recruitment of thousands of child soldiers. This indictment could create a precedent and serve the Ugandan army as legal backing toward capture of the rebel leaders, currently refugees in Southern Sudan. International law on children in war is one of the tools that has made the reconstruction of international relations after the Cold War possible.

Humanitarian and juridical discourses have also influenced the production of knowledge about children in war. They have essentially skewed it toward imperatives of denouncing those behind the violence and the victimisation of children. These discourses are themselves shaped by the prescriptive and normative approaches underlying the actions of humanitarian organisations in the field: how to reintegrate children into the social and economic fabric as well as an educational structure; how to help care for their psychological disorders; how to restore childhood to those deprived of it.

These humanitarian intentions toward children in war must however be placed back in the context of a broader discursive field. A great part of the discourse on the African conflicts of the last few decades put forth by actors on the international scene has tended to treat these crises as criminal undertakings whose primary, if not only, motivations were predation and the accumulation of riches. In this context, denouncing the use of child soldiers as a barbaric and criminal practice can be seen as part of a trend toward the depoliticisation and criminalisation of the nature of the African conflicts. By pointing out this connection, I do not seek to discredit the findings of “experts” with ties to the humanitarian world. It seems useless and even a bit dishonest to denounce, as others have done, the simplicity or caricatural character of the studies carried out by these humanitarian organizations. It appears that on the one hand they are influenced to a great extent by short or medium-term imperatives to action and that on the other, they fit into a programme of criminalising African violence.

The object of this article is above all historiographical. It does not develop any specific case for study, nor does it unveil any new approach to the issue of child soldiers. It intends more modestly to show the extent to which a knowledge of history and, more generally, of the social sciences, can nurture, supplement, and revise humanitarian discourse on the issue of child soldiers. In doing so, it also sheds light on darker corners or unconsidered areas of contemporary historical knowledge and calls for new research on the problems of children in Africa. This historian, seeking to set back in context the use of child soldiers as part of a longer development and to integrate it into a more accurate and precise history of childhood, seems, in this case at least, to have something to say. Beyond the question of child soldiers, this contribution to the dialogue calls on historians to look into a series of issues which have been but superficially addressed and which today merit all our attention.

Cross-examining the histories of Africa and the West permits us first to deconstruct the discourse that makes the child soldier a foreign category, exclusively the product of contemporary African crises. By considering more deeply the entire span of the continent’s history, we can seek to understand the characteristics of the recourse to children in contemporary conflicts. It is an opportunity to call for a historical enquiry that will re-establish continuities between times of peace and those of war.

The Child Soldier: A Brutality of the Other?

The child soldier has become the symbol of an African continent adrift, a “heart of darkness” decidedly alien to Western modernity. It has become the object of a new “humanitarian crusade” and a Western neo-interventionism with many moralistic similarities to the civilising missions of preceding centuries. The sincerity of humanitarian commitment aside, it must be understood that children constitute a central issue in efforts to legitimise Western interventions in Africa. The international community’s massive military and financial intervention in Sierra Leone, which today has led to the country being made a United Nations protectorate, was founded in part on the necessity of aiding child victims of the conflict.

Does the African continent really have a regrettable monopoly on the use of child soldiers, an intolerable brutality against which Western neo-interventionism justifies itself? Here the historian may introduce into the debate on children in war comparative heuristic perspectives. Humanitarian discourse, anchored in the present, makes the child soldier a symptom of postcolonial African crises. It has difficulty perceiving the unfortunately almost “commonplace” nature of the “instrumentalization of children” in times of war. Child warriors are no more the prerogative of the African continent than they are simply the expression of crises today affecting Southern countries in their transition to modernity.

To corroborate this, it is not even necessary to go back as far as the Children’s Crusade of the 13th century. Sabina Loriga reminds us that in Prussia, the “ Kantonsystem introduced in 1733 by Frederick Wilhelm the First, the Soldier-King, required all male subjects to undergo military training two or three months per year from the age of 10 onwards”. Historians of Western civilization have also highlighted the fact that in the great conflicts of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the child was at once the author and the specific victim of wartime violence. In the course of their respective works, Eleanor Bishop, Emmy Werner and Dennis Keesee have often emphasized the role of “soldier boys” in the American Civil War. In France, the findings of Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau on the First World War showed how many children were victims of directed acts of violence quickly passed over in silence to avoid heightening any resulting trauma. In Germany, Guido Knopp wrote a very interesting monograph on the use of children in the Nazi army. From these different works emerges the idea that in times of conflict, children are sometimes at once victims and agents of violence. Historian Tara Zahra has brought to light how, in the context of a more covert conflict, the nationalisms of Czechs and Germans competed for children during the two world wars, ready to tear them from their families in the name of the nation’s right to property. In Africa itself, colonial violence also made the child a target of choice. During pacification campaigns, French officers took care to capture children, preferably the offspring of local leaders, in order to send them to school and convert them to the coloniser’s creed. In French Sudan (now Mali), one of the first schools founded by the colonial administration long went by the name of the “School of Hostages” before being rechristened the “School of the Sons of Chieftains” after the conquest. During the first years of colonization, while the “pacification campaigns” still raged, compulsory schooling by administrative conscription was frequently seen as kidnapping. Thus, in his memoirs, former teacher and Nigerian politician Boubou Hama tells of how his own mother experienced his forced departure for school as an occasion for bereavement.

Colonial suppression of revolts or protests has sometimes targeted children in a very violent manner. In Namibia, at the beginning of the 20 th century, German soldiers received the order to spare no one among the Hereros: German General von Trotha had expressly commanded his troops to execute any Herero child or woman who ventured from the Kalahari Desert in an attempt to return to colonized lands. In 1950s Kenya, a policy in the suppression of the Mau Mau uprising was specifically aimed at Kikuyu children, who were imprisoned in camps where special rituals were to cleanse them of their Mau Mau indoctrination. To ensure a return to a more lasting colonial order, the British authorities agreed on the idea of “preserving” and “cleansing” the younger generation of Kikuyu. The Mau Mau movement had enrolled young children, initiating them from 8 years of age into the rites of their oath and later assigning them diverse tasks (reconnaissance, domestic chores in the camps, and sometimes combat). Recruitment or targeting of children in times of war is not therefore uniquely African, but constitutes a widespread phenomenon. The almost sadly commonplace character of the instrumentalization or targeting of children in periods of conflict must nevertheless not keep us from calling attention to and understanding a certain number of characteristics linked to the history of the African continent.

Toward a Long View of the History of Children in Africa

Our detour via the histories of Western societies and colonial periods allows us to see that violence done to children during African conflicts has nothing very unique about it, or at least that it in no way indicates any barbaric atavism exclusive to African societies. Nevertheless, children, whether agents or victims of violence, seem to play a more central role in the conflicts of post Cold War sub-Saharan Africa than in others. If the existence of child soldiers is not a new event, it holds a more significant place in Africa than elsewhere.

This fact is, however, contested by a certain number of authors who justly point out that the phenomenon of child soldiers is not unique to Africa. What changes instead is the discourse surrounding the children. During the American Civil War or the First World War, the participation of child soldiers was promoted and perceived through a very specific discursive register, that of the child hero. The actions of these children were “heroicised” and their eventual deaths seen as sacrifices in the name of a greater good, often the nation’s. Conversely, the participation of child combatants in the African wars is always perceived in a negative manner, through the registers of the victimised child and the stolen childhood. No higher value or greater good can legitimise resorting to children, whose involvement in war is essentially viewed as the result of violence or manipulation on the part of adults. The work of Paul Richards and Peter Krijn has however shown that African child soldiers possess a political consciousness and their enlistment, even under coercion, sometimes reflects a strategy to ensure their own survival or that of their loved ones. What is more, while European societies have largely obliterated acts of violence done to children from historical memory, such acts are often foregrounded in African conflicts. Their condemnation thus participates in legitimising the interventionist temptations of a readily moralistic West with a short memory. When reintegrated into the long history of the Western gaze on the continent, this kind of discourse contributes to rekindling the image of a barbarous Africa, the dark reflection whose image reassures Western societies in their conviction of representing a more advanced civilisation. Though this kind of critique makes sense, it is not however exclusive of other explanations that take into account the use of child soldiers with reference to certain characteristics of contemporary African history.

The international organisations involved in conflict resolution have also tried to understand the significance of child soldiers in sub-Saharan African conflicts. The widespread distribution of light arms is frequently presented as one of the chief means of recruiting child soldiers: the possibility of easily acquiring firearms as “light” and destructive as the AK-47 explains the recourse to children, suddenly capable of being transformed into killing machines no matter their physical strength. This premise has nevertheless been brought into question by specialists who call attention to the fact that contemporary firearms are not necessarily lighter than those of the 19th century. Another line of reasoning maintains that children do not feel fear due to a lack of awareness, and it is easier to obtain absolute loyalty from them. This theory, whose pertinence is not always obvious, nevertheless fails to explain why child soldiers are turned to more often today than before in Africa.

Obviously, a historical perspective is needed to restore a diachronic dimension in which the use of child soldiers in the conflicts of sub-Saharan Africa takes on another meaning. More specifically, it seems that we cannot understand the phenomenon of child soldiers without re-contextualising it in the larger frame of a middle-to-long historical view of children in African society.

It is first of all necessary to remind ourselves that children are not simply a biological group, but constitute a social group whose history differs depending on whether we are in Europe or Africa. Philippe Ariès maintained that the perception of childhood as a state of innocence and as a condition separate from that of adulthood was a relatively recent one peculiar to Western society. Despite recent challenges, his work has had the merit of suggesting that children were a group whose historicity should be restored. The notion of a legal age, as central to Western societies as to the international agreements prohibiting the use of child soldiers, still struggles to be applied in African societies. This notion probably began making its way into these societies during the colonial period, but there has been a shortage of studies measuring the changes provoked by the juxtaposition of multiple models of childhood. African societies have developed and often preserve their own models of childhood. The work of such anthropologists as Marian Ferme has made it clear that childhood in sub-Saharan Africa is often considered a moment of ambiguity, a hybrid and unstable state. Similarly, the relationship of children to warfare did not undergo the same developments in the West as in Africa. According to Sabrina Loriga, the question of a legal age for soldiers in the West was only raised in the second half of the 17 th century, for two essential reasons: the increased mortality rate among younger soldiers, and officers’ difficulties in controlling their younger charges. In the 19 th century, “in a few years all over Europe, children would be expelled from the army in favour of a separate premilitary preparatory system [...]. The association between war and the ‘manliness’ of youths thus evolved slowly over the course of the 19 th century, to spread and gain force only in the first decades of the 20 th ”. Beyond Europe, this renewed relationship between children and war in the West was largely responsible for the drafting of international conventions on child status. Nothing, however, leads us to believe that this recent Western phenomenon, which experienced severe violations during the conflicts of the 20 th century, affected the African continent.

The difference between the histories of childhood in Africa and in the West cannot simply be expressed in terms of diverse perceptions of the nature of childhood. The economic structures of each also integrate the child in very different ways. Since the end of the 19th century, Western societies have tended to remove children from systems of production to shape them as consumers in their own right. In African societies, children represent a significant part of the workforce that it is important to know how to mobilise. Among other studies, the work of Sara Berry on economic transformations and the notion of transmission in Yoruba societies clearly shows that relations between children and parents have developed, but that the perception of the child as a potential part of the workforce still remains quite strong.

Historians are also interested in the specificities of mobilising children as a workforce in African societies. Some authors stress that the slave trade deprived many societies of their workforces and forced them very early on to resort not only to female labour, but also that of young children to meet the community’s needs. The slave trade’s terrible toll could therefore explain why African societies have made the child an important resource, a source of labour that could be mobilized in times of peace and war alike. This argument is far from being accepted by all historians studying the slave trade. Aside from the fact that slavery affected different African societies neither in the same way nor to the same degree, some historians have remarked that children were themselves victims of the trade. David Eltis estimates, for example, that between one-quarter and one-third of the slaves exported to the New World were children under fourteen. For Paul Lovejoy, gender more than biological age formed the dividing line between exported slaves and those for local use. He estimates that in the 19 th century, the victims of the transatlantic trade were 70% male, with a rising number of children. The development of slavery in Africa itself, whether partnered or not with the transatlantic trade, made the child a target of choice in the tactics of capture and mobilisation of the workforce.

The work of Rosalind Shaw on memories of slavery in Sierra Leone showed that oral traditions and tales were full of stories of children being kidnapped by animals of the bush. These narratives doubtlessly reflect the fear of having one’s child abducted by traders. The impact of the slave trade, and to a greater extent that of pre-colonial slavery, on the child’s place in African societies and its possible link to the logic of the instrumentalisation of children in times or peace or war must, however, be studied in a more detailed manner. Distinctions will likely have to be made according to the society and how the trade affected it. We must also ask ourselves whether the abolition of slavery at the moment of colonisation constituted a genuine rupture for child slaves.

According to historians of labour, the abolition of slavery, far from being the simple expression of humanitarian will toward Africa, allowed for the establishment of other forms of mobilisation and exploitation of the African workforce, forms better adapted to the new colonial economies. Beverly Grier emphasizes that during the colonial period in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), recourse to child labour was a key link in the colonial economy, in part linked to structures of patriarchal society, and also facilitated by colonial legislation. Hamilton Sipho Simelane arrived at similar conclusions in the case of colonial Swaziland. These two studies are unfortunately relatively isolated and only concern specific cases from southern Africa.

Studies on the history of children in pre-colonial and colonial African societies are lacking. Aside from a few works on specific groups and topics, such as people of mixed-race, or the place of children in colonial propaganda, the historian is confronted by a historiographical void. The topic of youth arouses a certain growing interest among Africanist historians, but they even less often include studies specifically on children. This dearth of works permits considerable imprecision and many generalisations on the history of children in war in Africa. Thus, while Oliver Furley, focusing on his study of the Masai, asserts that the phenomenon of child soldiers was unknown in pre- colonial Africa, David Rosen surmises from the example of Mende societies that using child soldiers was a pre-colonial practice linked to the slave trade. In a report carried out for the Institute for Security Studies, Tom W. Bennet produced one of the few studies that interrogate the use of child soldiers from an explicitly historical perspective. His article, mainly based on secondary sources, reassesses the idea that child soldiers represent an ancient “African tradition.” Limited by his sources, the author nevertheless struggles to distinguish the categories of young adult, adolescent, and child, which seriously restricts the reach of his work. In all cases, the authors previously cited based their works on anthropological or historical studies that did not specifically treat the issue of children in war. References to history by contemporary experts appear quite approximate due to the same lack of detailed studies. Aside from the issue of child soldiers, there is an urgent need for history on the topic of children in Africa.

Postcolonial dynamics are perhaps a bit better known, especially in the cases of countries in armed conflict. The role played by young combatants and child soldiers in these countries has in fact encouraged sociologists, anthropologists, and political science specialists to question recent history. The works of Abdullah Ibrahim and Patrick Muana on the political mobilisation of the young in Sierra Leone are extremely interesting in this regard. They demonstrate that the recruitment of the young in Sierra Leone during the civil war was in keeping with the consequences of a political culture of violence and the mobilisation of the young by political elites since the 1970s. According to them, the recruitment of child soldiers by politico-military contractors retains similarities with the mobilisation of a child and quasi-submissive workforce in the Sierra Leone diamond mines during peacetime. These works encourage us to tie the issue of child soldiers to a longer history of child labour in colonial and postcolonial African economies.

The omnipresent figure of the child soldier, perceived as an aberration of modern times, prevents us from seeing the continuities in the violence perpetrated on children in times of peace as well as war. Even today the figure of the child miner, exploited in the pit mines of Sierra Leone or the East Congo, does not arouse the same international mobilisation as do child soldiers. However, there are close ties between these two figures of an African childhood.

Finally, we must point out a promising vein of research of gaining ground in political science and anthropology, but which has not really made its way into historical discourse. Researchers like Paul Richards attempt to step outside the discourse of the “victimisation” of child soldiers. While these researchers intend to denounce violence done to children in wartime, they seek as well to show that children are actual agents, capable of deploying their own strategies within the constraints imposed by the dynamics of war. Taking for example the heroes of the film Turtles Can Fly , set in a refugee camp in northern Iraq, children appear to be active agents whose margin of manoeuvre proves in the end to be greater than that of older generations. Wartime is marked by reversals through which the elders lose their hold on the young and entire towns pass into the hands of adolescent bands not always kept in line by their leaders. From earlier works such as those of Christian Geffray, it may be seen that for a section of Mozambican youth, involvement in armed movements provides a means of escaping the marginalisation of a society in which social and economic integration has broken down. Such armed movements were a veritable “social warrior corps” in which youths could climb the grades from captive to soldier, a hierarchy of welldefined roles and ranks. Alcinda Honwana extends this reasoning to the younger categories of combatant. Without denying the effects of domination and coercion, she highlights the fact that the young combatants “occupied interstitial social spaces between the adult and juvenile worlds, which conditioned their lifestyles. In these ambivalent spaces, they were not stripped of their capacities for action. Innocent and guilty at the same time, they were more tactical actors.” Indeed, in reading the fiction of Ahmadou Kourouma or Ken Saro Wiwa, we are made aware that child soldiers, in spite of violence they might suffer, are not without powers of reason. This is doubtless a still shadowy corner of study, delicate and difficult to explore, but one in which perhaps a better understanding of the involvement of children and adolescents in contemporary Africa is at stake. Today, there is a real need for history for those interested in the issue of children in war in sub Saharan Africa. A critical look is needed to break with the denunciatory and prescriptive approaches of humanitarian organisations, an approach that has its place but which sometimes obscures the full scope of the phenomenon. A historical approach allows us first of all to relativise the allegedly unique aspects of the African conflicts and to emphasize, unfortunately, the tragic ordinariness of the instrumentalisation of children in war. The historian must also take account of the roles and the particular forms of action taken by child soldiers in the conflicts of the 1990s. We have a long way yet to go in this field and this article has only been able to highlight the timidity of historical works on children in contrast with those on youths, a topic attracting increased inquiry. We are still too illequipped to measure the impact first of the slave trade and then colonisation on sub-Saharan Africa. We can, however, put forward the hypothesis that the study of child soldiers would have greatly benefited from being put back in the context of a longer view of history: the distinction between times of peace and those of war perhaps obscures an understanding of the role and of the instrumentalisation of children in African societies. In this sense, the historian can draw the interest of humanitarian consideration by pointing out the surprising continuities existing between the figure of the child soldier in war and that of the child miner in peacetime.

See, for example:

Ilene Cohn, Child Soldiers. The Role of Children in Armed Conflicts , Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994 ; Peter W. Singer, Children at War , New York, Pantheon Books, 2005 ; or Graça Machel, The Impact of War on Children . A Review of Progress since the 1996 United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children , London, Hurst, 2001.

By this term we mean to include international institutions, such as United Nations agencies, as well asnon- governmental organisations, the media, or even “experts”.

See especially the critique of the paradigm of “neo-barbarism” in Paul Richards, Fighting for the Rain Forest : War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone , Oxford, James Currey & Heineman, 1996. On the contrary, a number of these studies were based on on-site investigations whose example many historians of Africa might do well to follow.

See, for example, Jean-Hervé Bradol, “L’ordre humanitaire cannibale” [The Cannibalistic Humanitarian Order], in Fabrice Weissman (dir.), À l’ombre des guerres justes [In the Shadow of “Just Wars”: Violence, Politics, and Humanitarian Action, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2004], Paris, Flammarion, 2004.

Such historians as Georges Duby et Philippe Ariès feel that the “Children’s Crusade” consisted aboveall of a peasant class marginalised and labelled with the Latin term pueri , which then designated people in a situation of dependency.

Sabina Loriga, “L’épreuve militaire” [The Military Experience], in Giovanni Levi et Jean-Claude Schmitt, Histoire des jeunes en Occident [History of Youth in the West], Paris, Seuil, 1996, p. 21.

Eleanor C. Bishop, Ponies, Patriots and Powder. A History of Children in America’s Armed Forces, 1776-1916 , Del Mar, The Bishop Press, 1982.

Emmy E. Werner, Reluctant Witnesses. Children’s Voices from the Civil War , Boulder, Westview, 1998.

Dennis Keesee, Too Young to Die. Boy Soldiers in the Union Army 1861-1865 , Orange, Publisher’s Press, 2001.

See Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, L’Enfant de l’ennemi 1914-1918 [The Enemy’s Child], Paris, Aubier, 1995 ; et id ., La Guerre des enfants 1914-1918. Essai d’histoire culturelle [The Children’s War: An Essay in Cultural History], Paris, Armand Colin, 1993.

Guido Knopp, Hitler’s Kinder , Munich, Bertelsmann, 2000. Denise Bouche, L’Enseignement dans les territoires français d’Afrique occidentale [Schooling in the French Territories of Western Africa], Lille, Service de reproduction des thèses, vol. 1, 1977.

See the autobiography of Boubou Hama, Kotia Nima , Paris, Présence Africaine, vol. 1, 1969. The story recalls that of Breton peasants who cut their children’s hair and putt hem in coffins before their departures for military service (Sabina Loriga, op. cit ., p. 29). Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning. The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya , New York, Henry Holt & Cie, 2005.

Tabitha Kanogo, Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau 1905-1963 , Londres, James Currey, 1987.

For such historians, it is not a matter of denying any recourse to child soldiers in Africa. However, they believe that the Western outlook and taste for sentimentality tend to exaggerate the phenomenon’s statistical reality. See, among others, the estimates de Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy. The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War , New York, New York University Press, 1999, p. 132.

Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, La Guerre des enfants… , op. cit. , chap. 3.

Peter Krijn and Paul Richards, “Youths in Sierra Leone: ‘Why We Fight’ ”, Africa. Journal of the International African Institute , 68 (2), 1998, p. 183-210.

Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, L’Enfant de l’ennemi… [The Enemy’s Child], op. cit .

Here we must place the discourse of violated African childhood in the broader narrative of the Western gaze on African societies. According to Patrick Brantlinger, racist and humanitarian discourses of the 19 th century in the West concur, despite all their differences, in their description of a radical African otherness. This supports the West in its certitude of being the most advanced civilisation.

Patrick Brantlinger, “Victorians and Africans: the Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent”, Critical Enquiry , 12, 1985, p. 166-203.

A rough and ready assault rifle, produced in great numbers, and sold through out the world during the Cold War by the U.S.S.R. and the countries of the Warsaw pact. The Kalashnikov is slightly heavier than the rifles widely used in the Americain Civil War. See David M. Rosen, Armies of the Young. Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism , New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2005, p. 15.

In order to take it into account, one may consult the documentary by Jonathan Stack and James Brabazon on the war in Liberia ( Liberia: An Uncivil War , Gabriel Films, San Francisco, 2005). In certain scenes shot in July 2003 during the assault on Monrovia, the commanders of the rebellion whipped their soldiers, children or young adults, to make them advance. Fear could be seen on all the combatants’ faces, no matter their age.

See also the role played by lack of discipline in the behavioural strategies of child soldiers in Alcinda Honwana, “Innocents et coupables : les enfants soldats comme acteurs tactiques” [The Innocent and the Guilty: Child Soldiers as Interstitial and Tactical Agents], Politique africaine [African Politics], 80, 2000, p. 58-78.

Philippe Ariès, L’Enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Régime [Centuries of Childhood], Paris, Seuil, 1973.

Mariane Ferme, The Underneath of Things. Violence, History and the Everyday Life in Sierra Leone , Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001, p. 197-198.

In an interesting way, this suggestion is inverted in the case of Africans child soldiers by the affirmation that it is quite easy to keep them in line. In reality, there is a lack of accurate studies to support these different hypotheses.

Sabina Loriga, op. cit. , p. 28 et 43.

Sara Berry, Fathers Work for their Sons. Accumulation, Mobility, and Class Formation in an Extended

Yoruba Community , Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985.

Paul E. Lovejoy, “The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa. A Review of the Literature”, The Journal of African History , 30 (3), 1989, p. 365-394.

The question provoked intense debates between David Eltis and Paul Lovejoy in the early 1990s. Rosalind Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade. Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone , Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2002.

See Frederick Cooper, From Slaves to Squatters. Plantation Labour and Agriculture in Zanzibar and Coastal Kenya, 1890-1925 , New Haven, Yale University Press, 1980.

See also Cooper’s contribution, in Frederick Cooper, Thomas C. Holt et Rebecca J. Scott., Beyond Slavery : Explorations of Race, Labour and Citizenship in post-emancipation Societies , Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 107-150.

Beverly Grier, “Invisible Hands: The Political Economy of Child Labour in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890-1930”, Journal of Southern African Studies , 20 (1), 1994, p. 27-52.

Hamilton Sipho Simelane, “Landlords, the State and Child Labour in Colonial Swaziland 1914-1947”, The International Journal of African Historical Studies , 31 (3), 1998, p. 571-593.

In a similar vein of research, see Wiseman Chijere Chirwa, “Child and Youth Labour on the Nyasaland Plantations 1890-1953”, Journal of Southern African Studies , 1993, 19 (4), p. 662-680.

Owen White, Children of the French Empire. Miscegenation and Colonial Society in French West Africa 1895-1960 , Oxford/New York, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1999.

Ruth Ginio, “Marshal Pétain Spoke to Schoolchildren. Vichy Propaganda in French West Africa 1940-1943”,  International Journal of African Historical Studies , 33 (2), 2000, p. 291-312.

See the work of precursors collected by Odile Goerg and Hélène d’Almeida-Topor, Le Mouvement associatif des jeunes en Afrique noire francophone au XXe siècle [The Associative Movement of Youths in 20th Century Francophone Africa], Paris, L’Harmattan, “Cahiers Afrique noire – 12”, 1989.

See also Achille Mbembe, Les Jeunes et l’ordre politique en Afrique [Youths and the Political Order inAfrica], Paris, L’Harmattan, 1986.

Here as well the difference between youth and childhood is only delicately distinguished, the province of conventions or perceptions. This article does not mean to draw the line between these two groups in African societies. The works consulted do not, moreover, agree, on the age at which child soldiers can be told from adolescent combatants: some choose 7 years, others 12, even 16 years of age.

Oliver Furley, “Child Soldiers in Africa”, in Oliver Furley, Conflict in Africa , Londres, Tauris, 1995, p.28-45.

David M. Rosen, Armies of the Young , op. cit .

Tom Bennet, Using Children in Armed Conflict. A Legitimate African Tradition? , South Africa, Institute for Security Studies, « Monograph – 32 », décembre 1998.

The restitution of a pre-colonial past is made more difficult by the dearth of written sources. Despite recourse to oral sources, historians of Africa remain handicapped by the much greater archival density afforded their colleagues specializing in Europe or India.

Ibrahim Abdullah, “Bush Path to Destruction. The Origin and Character of the Revolutionary United Front/Sierra Leone”, The Journal of Modern African Studies , 36 (2), 1998, p. 203-235.

See also Ibrahim Abdullah and Patrick Muana, “The Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone. A Revolt of the Lumpenproletariat”, in Christopher Clapham (dir.), African Guerrillas , Oxford, James Currey, p. 172-194. By Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, produced by Palace Films in 2005.

Christian Geffray, La Cause des armes au Mozambique : anthropologie d’une guerre civile [The Cause for Arms in Mozambique: Anthropology of a Civil War], Paris, Karthala, 1990.

See also Paul Richards, “Rebellion in Liberia and Sierra Leone. A Crisis of Youth”, in Oliver Furley, Conflict in Africa , Londres, Tauris, 1985, p. 134-170 ;

or Franck Van Acker and Koen Vlassenroot, “Les ‘Mai Mai’ et les fonctions de la violence milicienne dans l’Est du Congo [The Mai-Mai and the Uses of Militia Violence in the East Congo], Politique africaine [African Politics], 84, 2001, p. 103-116.

Christian Geffray, op. cit. For a more recent text in the category of youth in Africa, one may also consult Jon Abbink and Ineke Van Kessel, Vanguard or Vandals. Youth, Politics, and Conflict in Africa , Leiden, Brill, 2005.

Ahmadou Kourouma, Allah n’est pas obligé [Allah Is Not Obliged, London, William Heinemann, 2006] , Paris, Seuil, 2000.

For a more recent autobiography from a female point of view, see China Keitetsi, Child soldier. Fighting for my Life , Bellevue, Jacana, 2002.

Ken Saro Wiwa, Sozaboy , Port Harcourt, Saros International Publishers, 1985. [repr. London, Longman, 1995]

To cite this content : Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, “Child Soldiers in Africa: A singular Phenomenon?”, 1 janvier 2006, URL : https://msf-crash.org/en/publications/war-and-humanitarianism/child-soldiers-africa-singular-phenomenon

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Child Soldiers in Africa: A Global Approach to Human Rights Protection, Enforcement and Post-Conflict Reintegration

2010, African Journal of International and Comparative Law

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Child soldier realty in Uganda: International law and reintegration

Türkan Melis PARLAK , Zeynep Banu Dalaman

The use of children who have been most exposed to the destructive effects of wars for various military 6 activities has been seen throughout history. Child soldiers are involved in civil wars and conflicts in many countries, especially in Africa, without discrimination. Even if the participation of 15-year-olds in the Army is accepted as a war crime by the United Nations, some 300,000 children are actively involved in wars today. The key to child soldiers is the reintroduction and retraining of these children. However, what should be mentioned here is that these children are guilty? Or a victim? In this article, the child soldier problem will be discussed from two angles. First, the effectiveness of the decisions taken to prevent criminal organisations and states from committing this crime to recruit child soldiers within the framework of international law rules will be discussed. Secondly, based on the example of Uganda, the programs prepared by the international community for the reintegration of former child warriors to society will be analysed.

John P. Sullivan

Contemporary warfare is no longer the sole domain of adults and state forces. Children are increasingly involved in conflicts waged by nonstate actors: guerillas, terrorists, jihadi bands, gangs, criminals, and warlords. These groups utilizing child soldiers operate outside the norms of war and the rule of law, and have abandoned long-held prohibitions against terrorism, attacks on noncombatants, torture, reprisal, and slavery. These actors fight among themselves and against states for turf, profit, and plunder while accelerating the barbarization of warfare. This article examines the use of children in war and armed conflict. Specifically, it reviews the contemporary child-soldier issue and discusses child combatants in three settings: internal conflicts (civil wars and insurgencies), terrorism, and criminal gangs. Finally, it describes how children become child soldiers and looks at ways of responding to the problem.

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Boko Haram made them child soldiers. Will their communities take them back?

• Deep Read ( 3 Min. )
• By Abubakar Muktar Abba Contributor

Aug. 27, 2024, 9:18 a.m. ET | Maiduguri, Nigeria

For nearly as long as the Nigerian government has been fighting Boko Haram’s insurgency, which began in the northern part of the country in 2009, it has been urging the group’s fighters to lay down their arms. 

But only in the last three years, as Boko Haram has splintered and lost ground, have its members begun to take up this amnesty offer en masse. Today, some 160,000 former fighters and their families have been “reintegrated” into Nigerian society, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 

Why We Wrote This

Accepting Boko Haram’s child soldiers back into Nigerian society has been controversial. But advocates say this radical act of compassion is the only way their society can heal.

The experiences of former child soldiers, however, point to how complex those efforts can be. Shunned by their communities, many have struggled to find a place for themselves outside Boko Haram’s orbit.

“How could we live alongside those responsible for such pain?” asks Bulami Goni, whose father was killed by Boko Haram.

But advocates for the former child soldiers say it isn’t impossible. 

“Kindness always pays,” says Bulama Maina Audu, who works with a group helping these young men return home. 

Abba Gana was only 10 years old when Boko Haram insurgents attacked his village in northern Nigeria in 2014. Along with the other boys his age, he was kidnapped and forced to herd the militants’ livestock.

By the time he was 15, Mr. Gana had joined the ranks of the group’s fighters, carrying out raids like the one on his own village. 

“Growing up with them, I thought I was fighting for a greater cause,” he says of his time with the group, whose goal is to create a fundamentalist Islamic state. Gradually though, the life of fighting and hiding began to wear him down. 

Then one day in 2022, he heard a government radio program urging Boko Haram members to surrender. “They said ... that we are welcome back [to our communities] if we repent,” he recalls. 

For the first time, Mr. Gana says, he allowed himself to imagine that he might be able to go home. 

For nearly as long as the Nigerian government has been fighting Boko Haram’s insurgency, which began in 2009, it has been urging the group’s fighters to lay down their arms. 

But only in the last three years, as Boko Haram has splintered and lost ground, have its members begun to take up this amnesty offer en masse. Today, some 160,000 former fighters and their families have been “reintegrated” into Nigerian society, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

The experiences of former child soldiers like Mr. Gana, however, point to how complex those efforts can be. Shunned by their communities, many have struggled to find a place for themselves outside Boko Haram’s orbit. But their supporters say it isn’t impossible. 

“Kindness always pays,” says Bulama Maina Audu, whose nephew was abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, and who now works with a group helping former child soldiers return home. 

The transition

In 2013, then-President Goodluck Jonathan announced that Nigeria’s government was offering amnesty to Boko Haram militants willing to leave the group. But it wasn’t until one of Boko Haram’s leaders, Abubakar Shekau, died in 2021, that a large number of fighters began to take up the offer. 

Their departure weakened Boko Haram, but it also presented new challenges. 

“It has been a struggle to even consider living alongside those responsible for my family’s suffering,” says Lawan Kyari, who lost both his parents and an uncle in attacks by Boko Haram and spent years displaced from his home. 

“How could we live alongside those responsible for such pain?” agrees Bulami Goni, whose father was killed by Boko Haram, leaving him responsible for an extended family of 20 people.

For Modu Kura, who was 10 when he was abducted by the insurgents in 2013, the hostility he encountered when he left Boko Haram nearly sent him back to the group. 

“Someone once said to me, ‘If you kill a scorpion, the scorplings will come for you, [so] you have to finish them all,’” Mr. Kura says. To his community, he was the baby scorpion that had to be destroyed. 

Kindness pays off

Those working with Boko Haram’s former child fighters, however, see learning to live side by side as the only way their society can heal. 

“The fears and concerns of the communities they are returning to are completely legitimate, but they can only be addressed through dialogue,” says Oliver Stolpe, UNODC country representative for Nigeria.

To that end, in 2021, UNODC started a program in Nigeria called Strive Juvenile, which helps children abducted by Boko Haram find their way back into society. To date, the organization – which is now run by the Nigerian government – has helped more than 2,500 children leave the militant group. 

Former child soldiers must be accepted “without stigmatizing or insulting them,” says Hauwa Rawa Ngala, who once fled her home to escape Boko Haram’s reign of terror. She now works with Strive Juvenile helping the group’s former members return home. 

Muhammed Ibrahim, a community leader and member of Strive Juvenile, recalls how Mr. Gana behaved when he first left Boko Haram in 2022. 

“His mind was still fixated on Boko Haram; he was secluded and would sometimes start screaming and threatening to carry out attacks,” Mr. Ibrahim recalls.

When the organization realized that Mr. Gana was severely traumatized, members made sure he was never alone, says Mr. Ibrahim, enrolling him in school during the day and in evening Quran classes. Eventually, he made friends and began to feel comfortable in his new life. 

“All we want is a peaceful future where we can all live in harmony,” Ms. Ngala says.

This article was produced in collaboration with Egab .

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Testimonies of former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Abstract In this issue, the Review has chosen to give a voice to former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Children recruited by armed groups experience separation from their families, physical and psychological violence, sometimes including sexual exploitation, as well as interruption of their education. Whether they joined an armed group forcibly or by choice, as a fighter or carrying out a different function – every story is unique, reflecting numerous challenges faced by children in these circumstances. The testimonies below reflect children's experiences, the difficulties they have faced and their hopes for a new life. In order to protect them and their relatives, their testimonies have been anonymized.

O. L., 15 years old, male

When I was 11, I was suspended from primary school for lateness. One day, I set off with my three friends to help my mother in the fields. On the way, six members of an armed group captured us. One friend was allowed to go, but my two friends and myself were made to walk for three days to the base of the armed group. When we got to the camp, I was bad-tempered because I was tired from the long walk in the hills through the mud; I felt dirty and was in desperate need of sleep.

We wanted to continue our studies, and the armed group enrolled us at a local school. I attended the school for only four days. Four armed men accompanied me and my friends there and back. At the camp, I learned to handle a gun and was tattooed and initiated in taking care of the gris-gris. 1 I was annoyed that I wouldn't be able to continue my studies. A month later, I learned that my two friends had managed to escape and had told my parents where the armed group was keeping me. My parents came to negotiate my release with the armed group, offering a goat, but the commander demanded a cow and made fun of them by offering them food. I was furious about the way the commander was humiliating my parents, but there was nothing I could do.

“I was also worried about the survival of the others. I couldn't just abandon them; I had to protect them.”

I spent around three years in the forest as the “guardian of the gris-gris”, and took part in five military operations against other armed groups and government forces. I was also involved in robbing people travelling on the main roads. I was unhappy about carrying the gris-gris, but I was also worried about the survival of the others. I couldn't just abandon them; I had to protect them. I was also troubled by the beatings and pillaging that I witnessed to obtain money and goods, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was often very angry at the commander: he did not seem to realize that he was capturing and beating my friends, my brothers. To vent my anger, I would shoot my gun in the air, which would usually earn me a beating.

In the last military operation in which I participated, I was shot in the mouth and lost four teeth. They took me to a local health facility, and I handed the gris-gris over to another fighter. The doctor refused to let the fighters take me back to their camp in the forest. I thought that that was it; I thought that I was going to die when the others left me at that health facility. The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] evacuated me to Bukavu general hospital, where I was treated for two months. When I came out of hospital, the commander of the armed group came to take me back to the forest. When the armed group was attacked by government forces, I took the opportunity to escape. I returned to my family but had to remain in hiding from the armed group and was facing arrest by the army. My family talked to a Red Cross volunteer, who informed the ICRC of my situation. I was evacuated again and taken to a transit and orientation centre for former child soldiers in Bukavu 2 , where I could be protected and could obtain a demobilization certificate. Three months later, I was reunited with my family, but within weeks the armed group had managed to locate me and send me a letter inviting me to rejoin them, with the promise that I would be treated well. Fearful about what might happen, together with my family we contacted the ICRC, who immediately arranged for me to be evacuated again and taken back to the transit and orientation centre in Bukavu.

The only way I will ever be left in peace is if my former commander dies or surrenders to the government forces. I didn't like living with the armed group. I never laughed. There was nothing I liked about that life except for the food, and even that was tainted as it was obtained by stealing livestock or extorting local people, who were forced to make weekly contributions in exchange for being left alone by the group. I cannot go back home as long as the group remains active in the area. Thanks to the transit and orientation centre and the ICRC, I am doing a hairdressing apprenticeship, which I am about to finish. I want to open my own salon so that I can be independent. Although I don't yet have the equipment I will need and the rent for the salon, that is how I see my future.

E. R., 17 years old, male

I am the oldest of three children. Our father died, and our mother has been working in the fields to help our family get by. One day, when I was 15, I was coming home from school with my three friends who lived in the same village as me, and as we were crossing a fruit plantation I heard someone calling my name. I stopped to see who it was, and a boy, who was about 10 years old, suddenly appeared, coming out of the plantation. He kept me amused by telling me nonsensical stories and asking strange questions. I told my friends to go home, saying that I would follow them. A few minutes later, four armed men appeared and forced me to go with them, knocking me about and striking me with a whip. That is how I found myself recruited into an armed group.

During my time with the armed group, I was brainwashed with their ideology and received training in military intelligence, armed robbery, weapons, livestock theft and intimidation methods for robbing people on the road or in the fields, or abducting them. I started as a cook, was promoted to bodyguard of the camp commander and was eventually made responsible for leading operations on a national road. Sometimes, I was sent with other children to support joint operations with other armed groups. There were times when I cried, especially when I thought about my mother and my two brothers, but I couldn't leave the bush because all the paths out were watched by members of the armed group. They also kept a watch on me.

“There were times when I cried, especially when I thought about my mother and my two brothers, but I couldn't leave the bush because all the paths out were watched by members of the armed group.”

One day, during an operation to steal livestock, I took an opportunity to lay down my weapon and my military shirt. I left them on the roadside and reported to MONUSCO [the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo], who took me to Uvira, where the ICRC tried to locate my family. I was very happy to be reunited with my mother and decided to stay in the city centre to avoid being forcibly recruited again. One day I received a visit from an NGO which offered me support to continue my studies. I didn't want to go back to school, though, because I was used to having money, so they helped me with equipment and materials to open a hairdressing salon. I now run my own salon which makes enough for me to get by and sometimes to pay labourers to help my mother farm her land. I am starting to think about having a family myself now.

I think the armed groups should lay down their arms and stop recruiting children because it's not right.

M. A., 18 years old, male

I was living with my parents in South Kivu. I was not attending school because we couldn't afford it, but I was surrounded by love and had a peaceful life. I often played football with my friends on a piece of land near our house. At the age of 5, I started taking the village cows into the surrounding hills. I spent my days stuffing myself with milk and potatoes and would return home in the evening as happy as I could be. I stopped herding cows when I was 9 and my parents started teaching me about farming. At 13, I followed the young men from my village to the mines. I wanted to earn some money to buy myself a pair of trousers and change my life, just like all the other young people in the village. When I had been working there for three years, several diggers were crushed in a rock fall. The incident scared me, and I decided to go back home and focus on farming. I was happy.

One Sunday in April 2017, when I was 16, the armed group came to our village because the soldiers stationed there had left to halt the advance of another well-known armed group. When fighters arrived, they forced the villagers to give them food. My friend and I were made to transport the food, but when we got to their camp in the hills, they did not let us go back home. They told us that we were men and that we should stay with them and protect our village. We refused and were beaten. At night, we were forced to guard the camp with just a machete as a weapon. I was horrified to belong to an armed group that didn't even have enough weapons to protect itself. Luckily, a week later, my friend and I managed to escape. We told our family we couldn't stay in the area, and left for another village. On the way, some young people who had seen us with the armed group recognized us and informed the government forces. We were arrested and held in a local lockup for four months, and then in a cell in Bukavu for three weeks. We were brought before a military court and sentenced to one year and five months at the Bukavu prison. My friend fell ill and was transferred to Bukavu general hospital, where he died. I was totally overwhelmed by the situation and lost all hope of ever returning home. However, the ICRC visited us and started monitoring my case. They eventually succeeded in having my case handed over to a juvenile judge. I was released and transferred to the transit and orientation centre, where I waited to be issued with a document certifying that I had left an armed group and for the ICRC to find my family. In March 2019, I was reunited with my family. It was an indescribably joyous moment, and all the villagers came to the house to welcome me back. They all thought I was dead.

I am now in the process of building a house for my mother – the greatest honour any man can have. I have gone back to my life as it was before the armed group and hope to start a family of my own one day. My experience with the armed group and in prison is one I hope never to repeat.

I. N., 17 years old, male

I was born in Kasai-Central Province in 2002, the fifth of seven siblings. My mother is a farmer, and my father a builder. Before I was recruited into the militia, I was a third-year student in building at a vocational training college.

In October 2016, I was at college when our neighbourhood was attacked by the militia. When I got home, there was no one there. I spent the night alone in the house and in the morning, on my way to school, I met six classmates who were going to the commune of Nganza, and I went with them. Along the way, they told me that they were going there to be “initiated” 3 for their freedom, and I thought it was a good idea. I therefore decided that I would also get initiated, with the intention of one day becoming a territorial administrator or a mayor.

After the initiation, we went to the front to fight the governmental forces. In the militia, I served as platoon leader in many operations. I fought in Kasai Province, where we slaughtered over fifty soldiers. Then there was the hunt for the FARDC [Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo] in the Kasais, the bloodiest clash yet, where the governmental forces were supported by another militia. Facing this resistance, we realized that the gris-gris in our possession were no longer working. I was racked with disappointment, my hopes of becoming a territorial administrator now dashed. The governmental forces, supported by the militia, were becoming stronger and stronger, and we suffered huge losses. My six friends were killed.

“I just want to go back to a normal life, resume my training and become a builder one day, like my father.”

I have to admit that life in the militia was good until the gris-gris stopped working. We had gone from victory to victory and were free to do what we wanted. It really was a good life for me. The reason why I left the militia was the round-up carried out by the governmental forces after our attempted hunt for the FARDC, when they arrested all the boys they could find, and would kill everybody on whose body they found a tattoo. 4 We fled to Angola, but the Congolese were expelled and I found myself back in my country. That was when the ICRC found me, contacted my family and took me back to them. Now, I just want to go back to a normal life, resume my training and become a builder one day, like my father.

L. O., 16 years old, female

Five years ago, I joined an armed group in the eastern part of the DRC. I was no longer studying because I wasn't clever enough at schoolwork. One day, armed men came into my aunt's shop where I worked. They drank all we had and then asked me to go with them to their base so that they could pay me. I asked two of my friends to accompany me. When we got there, they locked us up for two days. The armed group was preparing to fight, and they let us out and told us that we could choose between becoming soldiers and dying. We had no choice but to become soldiers. That same day, we were initiated by fetishes. When night came, fighting broke out, and we fought all night. One of my friends who had come with me was killed. I was very angry and decided to stay with the group to avenge my friend.

One day, we were engaged in a clash with another armed group in the bush; the fighting was intense, and we had run out of ammunition. Some members of our group had just been captured. Twelve children, including me, decided to try to escape to the nearest village. We hoped to get to the MONUSCO forces, who would be able to help us demobilize. However, we were intercepted by another group before we could find them. We were beaten and locked up at this armed group's camp and then quickly incorporated into its ranks. I continued to take part in fighting with this new armed group. It was difficult to find enough to eat, and we were forced to steal goats in the villages, which we often had to eat raw.

I sometimes cry when I recall what I went through. I think a lot about a great friend of mine who was killed in the fighting; he was only 9. After he was recruited into our group, his mother came and begged for him to be released. She took three goats to the commander so that he would let her son leave the group. Eventually, he took pity on her and promised to hand him over to her the next day. That night, however, we were sent to fetch cassava flour from the villages. There were ten of us, but I was the only one with a gun; the others only had spears and knives. On the way, we met some armed men who shot at us and killed my friend. He was the humblest of the group, and we all really liked him; he made us laugh. We all wept bitterly when we saw that he had been killed. We no longer thought about dying – we were filled with rage. We went down into the villages and killed many people, both civilians and combatants. Every time I think about that boy, I am overtaken by a desire to kill.

“It wasn't easy being a girl in an armed group. Sometimes the boys protected us from the violence meted out by the adults, but the commanders took advantage of night patrols to sleep with the girls.”

It wasn't easy being a girl in an armed group. Sometimes the boys protected us from the violence meted out by the adults, but the commanders took advantage of night patrols to sleep with the girls. They intimidated us, and if you refused to sleep with them, they would kill you and then go back to the camp and say you had been killed in the fighting.

There were clashes all the time. I was tired of the war and had become so thin that I was just a sack of bones. One day, when my commander sent me into the town to find food, I took the opportunity and escaped again. I went to the government forces with three of my friends. I was ready to leave the armed group and join the regular army, but they said that I was not old enough. I was transferred to a transit and orientation centre to be demobilized in August 2018. I was going to be reunited with my grandfather in North Kivu, but all reunifications in the area were stopped because of the Ebola virus. I appealed to those in charge of the centre, and they decided to take me back to my village. I was reunited with my family in September 2018.

When I arrived, the commander of the armed group that controlled the region recruited me again and wanted me to be his woman. I rejoined the armed group and one day, during a clash, I was shot in the leg twice. I was taken to a local health facility, where I was treated for several weeks. When I recovered, one of my friends gave me a little money, and I decided to come to North Kivu. I don't have a job at the moment and spend my days wandering around. I don't like hanging out with the girls in my neighbourhood because there is always tension owing to the things they say about me. Everyone knows that I was in an armed group.

K. E., 17 years old, male

In August 2017, I was with my brother in my village in the east of the DRC. The members of an armed group were making all the inhabitants of the village pay a tax. My brother and I had no money to pay it, so we were captured and taken into the bush, where we were thrown into a cell. It was awful. We slept on small mattresses onto which water was dripping each evening. We had nothing to eat. My older brother managed to escape when we went to fetch water from the river. They accused me of being his accomplice, threatened to kill me and forced me to become a fighter.

The life of a fighter in the bush is very hard. We would spend the night outdoors, even when it rained. Sometimes we found food in the villagers’ fields, but we didn't have time to cook it or eat it. I was responsible for escorting the commander and wasn't allowed to eat without his permission. It was difficult to find soap to get washed. We had to extort the local people to get what we needed.

I spent a year and a half in the armed group but didn't do much fighting. I remember one day, though, when I was nearly killed. It was during a clash with another armed group when four of our fighters were wounded.

In September 2018, I realized that I couldn't carry on like that any more and resolved to leave the group. One morning, with three other children, I decided to give myself up to the government forces and went to an army base where they promised to train us so that we could join the regular army, but a child protection association came and took all the children away. That is how I ended up at a transit and orientation centre. I didn't want to stay in the army. Those in charge of the centre spoke to the ICRC to have me reunited with my family, but my family said that I risked being recruited into the army again if I returned there. The ICRC therefore reunited me with my uncle in North Kivu in January 2019.

I would like to be a driver. I spend my days with other young people in the neighbourhood, but no one knows that I was a fighter. I wouldn't like them to know, because when you have been a fighter, you risk being treated as an outcast and slandered in the community. Some people even accuse you of things you haven't done.

“I spend my days with other young people in the neighbourhood, but no one knows that I was a fighter. I wouldn't like them to know, because when you have been a fighter, you risk being treated as an outcast and slandered in the community.”

W. Y.,16 years old, male

I was living in a village in North Kivu, where I had a plot of land. I wasn't studying any more, and when I wasn't farming I sold flour in my uncle's shop. One day, an armed group attacked the village and killed my uncle. A few days later, they returned and killed my grandfather. I was filled with rage and wanted to protect my family, so I decided to join a different armed group.

Three of my friends had lost their parents in the attacks on our village. One day at noon, we decided to go into the bush. When we got to the group's base, they taught us to handle a gun and we began to take part in night patrols. You had to be tough to live in the bush; we had no pay and couldn't buy ourselves any clothes. If we wanted money, we had to detain a member of the community and accuse them of something, such as failure to participate in the compulsory community work that the group imposes on the villages. For food, we made the local people bring us produce from their land.

I spent two and a half years in these conditions. I still think about my friends who were killed in the fighting. I remember one day when the army attacked us. We had been drinking and were drunk when the fighting started. Some of our fighters were killed. I was captured, along with twelve other fighters. The government forces took us to their base. I hoped that I would be able to join the regular forces, but people from a child protection organization came. They said that I was a child and that only adults could be trained to become members of the government armed forces. I was disappointed because I wanted to avenge my friends and relatives who had been killed. That was how I came to be reunited with my family here in North Kivu.

Now I sell kerosene in the evenings. During the day, I stay at home with my maternal aunt. I cannot go back to my village now. I did terrible things there; I killed a lot of people and would risk being killed myself if I went back. I am not sure what I will do with my future. I would like to learn to be a mechanic so that I could work and be independent.

J. B., 18 years old, male

I joined the armed group in July 2017. There were frequent clashes in my village between the armed group and government forces. Sometimes, when members of the regular army came back from the fighting, they would take their anger out on the young people in the village. One day, an armed group came into our village, and the government forces fled. The armed group urged the village's young people to join them, telling them that if they helped to free the country, they would be rewarded.

I had a small plot of land, where I grew sorghum and potatoes. I told my aunt that I would leave my plot in her care because I couldn't stay in the village any longer. One evening, I put some clothes in a bag and set off for the armed group's base in the hills near our village. On the way, I met a member of the armed group who encouraged me to join, and I went with him to their camp. He promised me that I would soon have my own gun.

I was given a warm welcome when I arrived, and was introduced to the leader. He asked me why I wanted to join the group, and I told him that I wanted to free my country. That was the only answer that could be given; otherwise they might suspect you of spying on them. Two days later, I was taught to use different types of weapons.

Four of us in the group were children. There were also some girls, but I don't know how many. Each time my friends from the village passed near the base and saw me, I felt that I was highly respected. My parents phoned me to tell me to leave the group, but I didn't want to. It got to the point where I stopped answering the phone.

I remember how one day I left on a night patrol with five other fighters. The others had guns, but I was the youngest of the group and only had a spear. That night I learned how to extort the local people. I managed to get 10,000 Congolese francs. 5 On our way back to the base, we encountered ten or so police officers who opened fire on us. One of my comrades killed a police officer. We captured the others and took them to a place near our base and killed them too. It was after this attack that I was given my own gun and military uniform.

Another day, one of the members of our group decided to leave and join the government forces. We went out to look for him and brought him back. The commander gathered all the local people in the middle of the village. He wanted to make an example of him, so that everyone would know that there would be no mercy for traitors. The commander ordered me to kill him in full view because I was from that village and was the only one in the group who had never killed anybody. I was very scared, but I killed him with a spear while the inhabitants of my village watched on. I knew then that I would never be able to return to my village; I had just dug my own grave.

The government army retaliated that night. It was the first time that I had seen a real battle. Several dozen people were killed, including both combatants and civilians. We got our hands on some of the army's weapons and uniforms. Some children who had lost members of their family came to join the group of their own volition.

A few days later, I was transferred to the group's hierarchy. I took part in a number of other clashes in which the fighting was much more intense. I was then promoted to unit commander, and I took advantage of this position to commit abuses against civilians. I am sure that even today, many people in these villages remember me. I killed a lot of civilians and combatants. I had become heartless.

One day, while I was sleeping, there was an attack and I was hit by a bomb blast. Six of my comrades were killed. When I came round, I was tied to a tree and had been whipped by members of the group that had attacked us. I was bleeding all over and thought I would die, but the next day, members of our group carried out a counter-attack and freed me. I was taken to a health facility, where I received medical attention. That was when I resolved to leave the armed group. I was tired of it all and had a feeling that I might die in the next battle. I talked to some of the children in our group, telling them I was planning to escape and that they could come with me if they wanted.

Around noon on the day I decided to leave, I gathered my belongings together, and my friends followed me. We pretended that we were going to the river to wash our clothes. After we had set off, somebody tipped the commander off, and he sent other fighters to follow us. We fled, each taking a different path, and I ended up alone in the bush. I didn't want to go back; I was sure that if I was caught, I would be executed. I walked all day and all night. The next day, as I was approaching the city of Beni, I asked someone who was working in the fields to help me. He accompanied me to see a local chief, who took me to the city's authorities. Unfortunately, they handed me over to the army, and I was put in prison for a month. A child protection organization came and took me to a transit and orientation centre in June 2018, and in November of that year, the ICRC reunited me with my family in North Kivu.

I don't want to go back to the army now. I need to prepare for the future. I don't want my family to see me as a fighter, and I know that I cannot go back to my village. My plan now is to go back to school.

ICRC support to former child soldiers in the DRC

The ICRC supports children who have come out of armed groups through small income-generating projects entailing training, material support and follow-up assessments. These projects aim to provide the children with a skill they can use in their home environment, so they can financially support themselves. Limited socio-economic prospects can be a push factor for children to join armed groups, and the income-generating projects aim to prevent the children's re-recruitment into armed groups.

To partake in the income-generating projects, the children are first encouraged to analyze what already exists in their home environment and the local markets. They then undergo several days of training on how to budget, save money, and plan and manage an activity. At the end of the training, the children can choose between a range of activities, including hairdressing, tailoring, mechanics, agriculture and phone repairs. Most of the children choose to become street or market vendors, which is also a socially acceptable role for women and girls in the DRC. Thereafter, the children are encouraged to think about what they would like to make (doughnuts, sandwiches, etc.) or sell (soap, peanuts, basic household items, etc.).

Once the training is over, each child receives a kit from the ICRC with the necessary items to kick-start their chosen income-generating activity once they return home. After a short period, the ICRC carries out a multi-purpose visit to see how the child is reintegrating into their family and the community, and to monitor the income-generating project and provide further advice to support the child and the family if required.

• 1 Gris-gris are charms believed to protect the fighters.
• 2 The transit and orientation centre for former child soldiers is run by the Bureau for Volunteer Services for Children and Health.
• 3 At a Tshiota, a ceremonial fire at which fetishes and potions are distributed.
• 4 It is likely in this context that the FARDC were looking for certain arbitrary signs, such as tattoos, that would indicate the children were “different”, and therefore (in the FARDC's eyes) associated with the militia. The militias in the Kasais used a lot of amulets, necklaces and other markers, so it is possible that having a tattoo was extrapolated to being part of these insignia.
• 5 Equivalent to 6 US dollars.

Continue reading #IRRC No. 911

Testimonies of former child soldiers in the democratic republic of the congo author:, “this is my story”: children's war memoirs and challenging protectionist discourses author: helen berents, living through war: mental health of children and youth in conflict-affected areas author: rochelle l. frounfelker, nargis islam, joseph falcone, jordan farrar, chekufa ra, cara m. antonaccio, ngozi enelamah, theresa s. betancourt, born in the twilight zone: birth registration in insurgent areas author: kathryn hampton, the policy on children of the icc office of the prosecutor: toward greater accountability for crimes against and affecting children author: diane marie amann, international humanitarian law, islamic law and the protection of children in armed conflict author: ahmed al-dawoody, vanessa murphy, child marriage in armed conflict author: dyan mazurana, anastasia marshak, kinsey spears, engaging armed non-state actors on the prohibition of recruiting and using children in hostilities: some reflections from geneva call's experience author: pascal bongard, ezequiel heffes, taking measures without taking measurements an insider's reflections on monitoring the implementation of the african children's charter in a changing context of armed conflict author: benyam dawit mezmur, q&a: the icrc's engagement on children in armed conflict and other situations of violence: in conversation with monique nanchen, global adviser on children, icrc author:, keeping schools safe from the battlefield: why global legal and policy efforts to deter the military use of schools matter author: bede sheppard, safer cash in conflict: exploring protection risks and barriers in cash programming for internally displaced persons in cameroon and afghanistan author: julie freccero, audrey taylor, joanna ortega, zabihullah buda, paschal kum awah, alexandra blackwell, ricardo pla cordero, eric stover, more about international review of the red cross, children and war, children, former child soldiers, building the case for a social and behaviour change approach to prevent and respond to the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups author: line baagø-rasmussen, carin atterby, laurent dutordoir, “i'mpossible”: some challenges of implementing international law in the area of humanitarian affairs for persons with disabilities author: mar maltez, at risk and overlooked: children with disabilities and armed conflict author: emina ćerimović.

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Global Coalition for Reintegration of Child Soldiers

Virtual open meeting of the friends of reintegration/launch of the briefing papers.

Recording of the meeting available here

The Global Coalition for Reintegration – an alliance of Member States, UN agencies, the World Bank, civil society organizations and academia – was launched in September 2018 to innovate new ideas to sustainably address support for child reintegration programmes. It is co-chaired by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and UNICEF.

Thematic Papers

Through a 12-month research process, the Global Coalition for Reintegration was able to identify the main gaps and needs in child reintegration funding and programming. This process resulted in the publication of three briefing papers in 2020, which recommendations focus on new modalities and mechanisms for child reintegration to ensure long-term and sustainable funding for this strategic post-conflict intervention.

“This series of papers makes a new contribution to [our] awareness and knowledge by demonstrating how it is the responsibility of all the international community to join together and act. Thousands of children recruited and used by armed groups, and other affected children in their communities, do not receive the minimal care or services to reweave the fabric of a torn society.” UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed

Summary of findings from three reports

This document presents a summary of the three briefing papers and contains actionable recommendations to stimulate thinking and action to assist these vulnerable children and their communities.

Paper I: Gaps and Needs for the Successful Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Groups or Armed Forces

This first briefing paper considers the key barriers that hinder children’s successful reintegration (i.e. programmatic and financial constraints) and provides good practices for implementing reintegration. It particularly highlights that a rights-based approach is essential throughout all phases of reintegration, from the earliest phases of the humanitarian response throughout development and peacebuilding activities.

Paper II: Reframing Child Reintegration: From the Humanitarian Action to Development, Peacebuilding, Prevention and Beyond

This second briefing paper reframes reintegration by situating it within a better-funded, longer-term, more sustainable approach to reintegration by a wider range of stakeholders across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus (HDPN) and recognizes that the success of each domain is dependent in part on the performance of the others. It underlines the centrality of reintegration to the SDGs – and the SDGs to reintegration – and the ability of conflict-affected countries to prevent children from experiencing harm in the future.

This third briefing paper puts forward the types of funding instruments used in the different fragile contexts, outlines a number of overarching principles relevant to financing, and describes alternative and innovative financing instruments relevant to reintegration programming. In particular, it emphasizes that a multi-year and predictable funding is crucial to allow for the development of relationships at program level between stakeholders, including enhancing national ownership and capacity-building of governments (national and local) where possible and appropriate.

The three papers make the following key overarching recommendations:

• Promote child reintegration as the shared responsibility of multiple stakeholders across sectors and the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus;
• Make reintegration support available to children for a minimum of 3-5 years per child, based on the needs of the child and his or her family and community;
• Build programming around one coherent framework with measurement tools and indicators that can be used across the continuum;
• Conduct research and generate evidence at the field level to show which interventions in support of child reintegration are most effective and warrant further investment;
• Fund community-based reintegration programming that can address children’s needs in the medium- to longer-term, and that span the HDPN continuum seamlessly;
• Leverage existing funding mechanisms to achieve results, and create new mechanisms as required;
• Ensure access to reintegration support for boys and girls without discrimination.

Consultations

To support the development of these three thematic papers, the Global Coalition for the Reintegration of Child Soldiers organized a series of consultations with experts from various background which exchanged knowledge and experiences on reintegration programming.

The first consultation meeting with former child soldiers and children affected by armed conflict took place in June 2019 in New York with partners from South Sudan, Sierra Leone and UK, among others. This consultation convened a group of children who had been associated with armed forces and armed groups and/or affected by armed conflict to learn from people directly involved in reintegration activities either as a participant or an observer. Several issues were covered as part of the consultation including community acceptance, education, economic activities, psychosocial support, length of reintegration programming, best practices, and gender-sensitive programming among others. The consultation also aimed at highlighting the contribution of child reintegration programmes to overarching societal goals such as breaking the cycle of violence, reducing risk of and vulnerability to rerecruitment, and increasing resilience.

The participation of children in conflict bears serious implications for their physical and emotional well-being. They are commonly subject to abuse and most of them witness atrocities such as killing, maiming , abduction , and sexual violence . Many are forced to commit violent acts, and some suffer serious long-term psychological consequences. The reintegration of these children into civilian life is an essential part of the work to help them rebuild their lives. Their reintegration to the community in a non-discriminatory manner is furthermore beneficial for the society as a whole.

Regardless of how they are recruited and regardless of their roles, children associated with armed forces or armed groups (CAAFAG) must be primarily considered as victims.

According to the Paris Principles and Commitment , “Child Reintegration” is the “process through which children transition into civil society and enter meaningful roles and identities as civilians who are accepted by their families and communities in a context of local and national reconciliation .”

Within the UN system, UNICEF is in charge of the reintegration of CAAFAG to prepare them for a return to civilian life. Psychosocial support, education and/or vocational training are important aspects of reintegration programmes. Attempting to reunite children with their families and communities is also essential, but sensitization and reconciliation efforts are sometimes necessary before a child is welcomed back at home.

While the needs are significantly on the rise, dependable and predictable funding for reintegration programming, particularly in emergency situations, has been steadily decreasing. In the past five years, UNICEF reports that over 55,000 boys and girls were released and disassociated from armed forces and armed groups globally; however only 70% (42,000) of these children could benefit from reintegration packages.

Investing in child reintegration is fundamental for these children to fully realize their rights, but also to build more equitable and inclusive societies and achieve social cohesion, democracy and economic and productivity gains. The United Nations and World Bank study Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict asserts that longer-term efforts to strengthen national systems and institutions that prevent the recruitment and use of children (e.g.

Photo: UNICEF/UN0209628/Chol

education) is more cost-effective and appropriate than a response alone. Supporting child reintegration is a strategic intervention for ALL stakeholders interested in reducing conflict—governments, donors and agencies—and moving towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and lasting peace and prosperity in conflict-affected countries.

As called for by the Security Council in resolution 2427 (2018) and the Paris Principles , reintegration programmes must be long-term and sustainable, must be gender and age-sensitive, and must provide children with access to health care, to psycho-social support and to education. The Paris Principles further stipulate that reintegration programming is needed for at least three years, perhaps longer; meanwhile many programmes currently run for as few as six months. To strongly address the reintegration gap, an innovative and radical new approach is needed. Business as usual for funding reintegration programmes can no longer suffice: we need to harness significantly more resources for more ambitious programmes and sustainable effects.

The Group of Friends on Reintegration, comprised of 28 Member States to date*, was created to increase support to child reintegration, acknowledging that durable peace cannot be achieved if children are left behind and not fully reintegrated into civilian life.

* Andorra, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, France (Co-chair), Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan (Co-chair), Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Malta (Co-chair), Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay.

Watch the event:  Funding the Future: Challenges and Responses to the Reintegration of Child Soldiers.

Hear more about the reintegration of ex-child soldiers in South Sudan, a process supported by UNICEF.

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