It is hard to imagine that children as young as 6 years old are being taught to kill. As children across the U.S. and other countries are playing with each other, children in Africa and parts of Latin America are being sent to fight and to die.
A young child soldier said “They’d whip us as punishment. If you made a mistake, they’d whip you up to 70 or even 120 times.” Children do not have the opportunity to say no in fighting. Either you fight or are shot dead on the spot. Countries that are actively recruiting child soldier are Sri Lanka, Congo, Colombia, Ivory Coast and Afghanistan.
These children come from countries that are in the middle of civil and tribal wars and ravished with poverty. These children literally have no place to go.
The respective governments of these child soldiers care nothing about this type of social issue thus leaving international organizations to fight for the rights of these young soldiers. Often times, international organizations can do little to prevent this from happening.
So you may ask, how do the children feel? One child soldier said “Some people came looking for former soldiers, for child soldiers. … It had been my intention to return to the army,” he said. “Even if my mother and family could take me back, they don’t have the means to send me back to school. Here, the only thing I can do is steal. All I can do is roam around the streets.” Another Congolese child said “I’d rather fight for my country than stay home with no food.”
It’s these types of social issues that the international community must pay closer attention too unfortunately, I fear that day is far in the future.
