During times of war many nations or groups need a lot of soldiers to fight for them. A lot of
men are selected to fight but children are also being used to fight in war too. Children don’t
always volunteer to fight in war. They are abducted and beaten into submission until they join.
Some children join because of poverty. They may be fed a meal for being in the army so they
went just for the food.
In 1977, a war for independence from Portugal started in Mozambique. The RENAMO
(Mozambique national resistance) leaders were so determined to beat Felimo (Mozambique
Liberation front) that they went around to villages gathering up young men to fight and when
they didn’t have enough young men they got young boys starting at the age of 6 years old. A lot
of them were forced into fighting, by being kidnapped. The youngest boys were servants or
spies for RENAMO. Some of the youngest of them had to kill cattle and when RENAMO felt
they were ready they were ordered to kill people. Many of the child soldiers thought of
themselves as victims or captives. RENAMO had heavily policed camps to keep kids from
escaping. They usually tried to escape during battle or when they were on missions to gather
supplies. A lot of the kids that tried to escape eventually ended up in Felimo jail.
Many rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were broken during this war.
Articles 1. (All human beings are born free and equal. You are worth the same, and have the
same rights as everyone else.), 3. (Everyone has the right to live, to be free, and to feel safe.) ,
4. (No one should be held in slavery for any reason.), 5. (No one shall be put through torture, or
any other treatment or punishment that is cruel, or makes him or her feel less than human.),
and 12. (No one has the right to butt in to your privacy, home, or mail, or attack your honesty
and self-respect for no good reason. Everyone has the right to have the law protect him or her
against all such meddling or attack.) ,were all violated in the conflict. These kids are being
deprived of their rights because they are being taken away, beaten, being held captive, and not
having the freedom to do what they want. So many of the children are dying and not fully
growing up. They already don’t have much because some of their families were killed due to
not joining the army when recruited and some children just need the food and are joining to
survive. Many human rights are being broken but not a lot of people were doing anything to
prevent this from happening.
Abubacar Sultan is still working on the issue of child soldiers. He traveled the country during the
war in Mozambique and rescued the kids six to thirteen who witnessed the atrocities against
their family and neighbors. The UNICEF (United Nations International Emergency Children
Fund) is a group who believe child soldiers is wrong and they shouldn’t be put such a tragic
experience at a young age. They help rescue kids who are being mistreated, sick, in poverty,
and equality of others. Also CSI (Child Soldier International) helps to prevent child soldiers by
exposing the countries and taking the children from countries where they are being used in
war. Some obstacles were actually creating laws to prevent it. Then some people wouldn’t
follow the laws so it was hard enforcing it because no one was there to watch every country.
Child Soldiers are in more than 25 countries. The biggest offender is Africa. Some recent
countries that have been found to use child soldiers are: Chad, the Congo Republic, Somalia,
Sudan, Southern Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom and Israel.