Conflicts in Africa, specifically in West African countries have been rampant for many years. As a result of these conflicts, loss of life and properties has been witnessed for a number of decades. Conflicts are as old as human kind. We can not avoid conflicts completely but they can be managed. Since human exhibits different behaviour and aspirations, this in most cases leads to conflicts. In West African countries, such conflicts have been fueled by a number of factors and individuals with different personal motives.
Conflicts are caused by a number of factors like competition for resources, creed, and lack of strong law enforcers. When they are not well handled; small and manageable conflicts can blow out of hand, calling for international interventions. By the time conflicts get to these levels, many properties and lives will have been lost. During conflicting moments, innocent people face the edge of the sword, leading to family instability, separation, homelessness, disabilities and animosity. Children are not left behind during conflicts. In case of western African countries, such children have been forced to soldier hood, making them lack parental care and education.
CAUSES OF CONFLICTS IN WEST AFRICA.
In this region, citizens in western African countries like Congo, Sierra Leone and Nigeria to mention but just a few. These are some of the countries that have over a decade, experienced a number of conflicts, leading to child soldier. The leading number one for conflicts in these countries is competition over the natural resources. The fight is fueled more when people in the region try to fight over minerals like diamond and oil. Different groups of people in this region have witnessed endless struggle to control the nat...
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...roups from either side. The children are traumatized, instilled with fear, denied their rights and even fail to have their education.
The reasons why child soldier have been used for a long time, is to enhance the fighting power of the fighting groups. They are also greatly used as sources of cheap labor, who are rarely paid are easy to control as opposed to grownups. Since there are light guns like AK47, the children soldiers are given such guns as well as used in laying of landmines.
Child soldiers in combat are signs of how a number of African countries have failed to implement universal human rights and also lack of commitment from the government to enforce laws. There is need to enforce laws guarding against child labor. Those countries should also collaborate to avert conflicts and instead come with better ways to share natural resources in their country.
As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any kind of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than simply a child with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18, being used as soldiers in 33 conflicts currently, and this figure continues to rise (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Similarly, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight ...
There is no exact known number of children currently being utilised in warfare worldwide. The issue of the military use of children is so widespread that no figure can be calculated, although it is estimated that there are currently over 250,000 child soldiers across the world. Many are drugged and brainwashed into murder, many are forced to sever all ties with their family or watch them die. Most are faced with a simple choice: kill or be killed. Although the notion of child soldiers is vastly alien to contemporary Australian society, it is a reality in many parts of the world. ISIS have been known to employ the use of children in warfare and over 30,000 children have been abducted into the Lord’s Resistance Army for military purposes. It
Zack-Williams, A.B. (2001). Child Soldiers in the Civil War in Sierra Leone. Review of African Political Economy, 28 (87), 73–82.
The lost boys of Sudan view war as bad luck, since they have no control over violence in their region. The lost boys did not choose to be born within these two groups, and are not willing to participate in violent activities, in their environment. The boys are not supportive of the war, and it is from this reason that they are fleeing away from their home country to avoid recruitment into militia groups (Ajak, 2006). Therefore, war causes separation of family members and disintegration of ethnic groups. People lose their ethnic identities during instances of war as they seek refuge in new environments. According to the boys, war leads to premature death, fear, hunger, disability, violence, displacement and diseases. War exposes people to more harm than during peaceful periods (Ajak, 2006). The lost boys feel that war is a threat to their lives and schooling. It is a tradition for...
Children have been used as soldiers in many events, however two that stand out are the use of child soldiers in the Sierra Leone civil war and the drug cartels in Mexico. Most people agree that forcing children to be soldiers is wrong and not humane. The people that make them soldiers transform them into belligerent beings by force. Child soldiers of drug cartels and the armies of Sierra Leone were threatened with their lives if they didn’t become soldiers. The lives of these child soldiers are lives that nobody should live. Situations in both countries are horrible because of the high number of youngsters that are forced to take part in drug use and are transformed into extremely belligerent and inhumane people; in addition they are deprived
In order to analyze Boahen’s work as well as produce a coherent interpretation of his evidence, definitions for and connections between the terms in question are critical. Therefore, peaceful responses are defined as devoid of bloodshed and aggressive confrontation whereas violent reactions are defined as uprisings of a coalition or faction that involve open hostility. In the context of African resistance to colonialism, success is defined as the achievement of the party in question's objective as well as sustaining the attained goal in order for it to have a lasting positive impact on the country. These objectives typically fall into the two categories of state sovereignty and amity. While they are generally found to be the products of peaceful reactions, fatalities and destruction are by large the most notable outcomes of violent opposition. Moreover, this pattern observed from the results of the two types of responses is best understood when presented in terms of time periods: invasion and occupation.
A child soldier is a child who has been abducted and forced to fight in a conflict in which they would not typically be involved in. Child soldiers have their relatively normal childhood taken away if they are abducted. Instead of playing with the other children, they are forced to murder them. Many are forced to watch the people they once knew be tortured and they may even take part in the act. Child soldiers are internationally banned, yet many countries still utilize them to this day. Uganda is one country in which they are used. The use of children in armed combat in Uganda sheds light on the fact that the concept of power is indeed a double-edged sword.
The conflict of Western Sahara deserves global attention because the was has caused the displacement of thousands of people and many deaths. There are many reports of violence and human rights abuses in the territory. For example, Western Sahara citizens are able to protest but the police will often disperse them violently. Europe and the United States say their worry is that the conflict is souring relations between Morocco and Algeria and preventing them from working together against Islamist violence. Also the eight Millennium Development Goals e...
Shockingly, many of them have often been spotted carrying very sophisticated weapons, and many weapons that can take down planes. child soldier is detrimental to peace and to children who are the future (British Job p6). most people are wondering why children are used as soldiers. the most basic reason is children are more obedient than adults, they can almost carry out every order from their commander.... ...
Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.
A child soldier is defined as someone who is under eighteen years of age and is actively fighting in war. It is estimated by UNICEF that some 300,000 child soldiers, both boys and girls, are currently fighting in wars. A majority of children are turned into child soldiers through recruitment or force while others join because they live in a poverty stricken area or a war zone. (UNICEF) Most child soldiers range ...
By definition, a child soldier is any person below 18 years of age who is recruited or used by an armed force in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, coo...
As an example, in the article Child Soldiers it states “ More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children have become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol” (Child Soldiers) As you can see, this shows how children have no control if they kill or not from either being threatened with death or being drugged. In addition, in the article The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo it talks about how a child soldier got interrogated by guards where they told him he would be gang-raped and murdered if he didn’t obey (Prasow). This is another example of how these kids have to choose between life and death at such a young age. This is just one main reason why these kids deserve
For my essay I will be evaluating the sub-saharan African country of Liberia. Over the course of this essay i shall try and shed some light on the main threats to peace and stability in the country. Threats that, if not treated responsibly and correctly, could throw Liberia, the Liberian people and potentially a large proportion of West Africa back into the violence and political instability that has plagued the region over the last few decades.
Child Soldiers: The use of children in the military. Child Soldiers have three different roles in armed conflict. They can take a direct part in hostilities, or they can be used for support, such as sexual slaves, lookouts, messengers, and spies. Also, they can be used in the political aspect of war. Because many children have been physically or mentally damaged by their participation in armed conflict, children should not have any involvement in any armed conflict and should be removed indefinitely from warfare. Every child has the right to go to school, free from violence. Children have been used in the military for hundreds of years.