Child Soldiers in Africa

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Child soldiers in africa Recruitment methods in Africa On average, children as young as five are recruited. At such a young age, it is easy for military commanders to manipulate and train these children into their ideal soldier. Therefore, Human Rights advocates demand that governments who are guilty of using children in their military forces should both admit to this atrocity and then immediately stop it. Military commanders prefer children because of their emotional and physical immaturity, which enables them to be easily manipulated or ‘brain washed’ into the ‘perfect soldier’. If they are not taught, young children are unable to correctly distinguish between right and wrong, in addition to this, children will carry out orders without questions because they are not aware of the consequences of their actions. The fact is that these children have no other choice when it comes to committing these acts of violence. Once recruited these children do various tasks, they are not simply used as soldiers in conflict but also do many other duties, such as being; messengers, guards, cooks, mechanics, porters, spies, labours, human shields, human minesweepers, decoys, servants and also sexual slaves. Girls are also recruited, however in the majority of cases they are not just recruited to be soldier, but to be either raped or to become ‘wives’ to military commanders. In addition to this girls are also used to abduct other children for the military forces and also take part in food raids. Generally, children are seen as easily replaceable soldiers and of little worth by adult soldiers, this explains why so many children died needlessly. Military commanders kill children for the following reasons; if they refused to join the military force or carry out orders, if they became sick or can not keep up with their adult comrades and also for trying to escape. Some children,
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