Mzansi Afrika tells of The Hidden Health Trauma of Child Soldiers
A new Belgian study reveals that children abducted or recruited to fight in wars suffer horrific atrocities and many are beaten and sexually abused. Young soldiers are forced to kill other children or even members of their own family, and girls are given to senior staff to act as wives.

An estimated 300,000 children, some 12 or younger, are currently serving as soldiers or guerrilla fighters in conflicts around the globe.

“I think this is the first time someone has investigated their experiences,” Ilse Derluyn, of Ghent University in Belgium. Derluyn and her colleagues interviewed 301 former child soldiers who had been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel movement in northern Uganda. Their research is published in The Lancet medical journal.

UN Regional Information Africa (IRIN) has more on this story.

In the meantime, Oneworld.net reports that Nepal’s Maoist rebels have announced plans to raise a militia of 50,000 children by April.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (CSC) is an NGO that does valuable human rights work around this issue. They have been at the forefront of efforts to ban the recruitment and use of child soldiers, while encouraging sustainable networks to promote demobilization and reintegration of former child soldiers. The site provides news, information, resourses and related links.