The Forgotten Girl Soldier

4AUG2011

Demobilized child soldiers
in the DRC

Female child combatants - 40 percent of all child soldiers - often go overlooked. Greater attention is warranted to the gender-specific roles and challenges they face from combat to rehabilitation.

By Cassandra Clifford for ISN Insights

The use of child soldiers in armed conflict plagues our global society, as thousands of children continue to be recruited into armed conflict by both government forces and armed rebel groups. UNICEF estimates that there are some 300,000 child soldiers actively fighting in at least 30 countries, with the majority 200,000 in Africa. Approximately 43 percent of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers, 90 percent of whom see combat.

While, unfortunately, the use of child soldiers is not a new topic, one prominent element of this tragic story often goes untold: the role played by female child soldiers. According to Save the Children, some 40 percent of children involved in armed conflict, or 120,000 child soldiers, are girls. As with boys, the majority of girl soldiers are abducted or forcibly recruited into armed groups, which include government-backed paramilitaries, militias, self-defense forces, and government opposition or rebel factions that are divided along ideological, partisan, ethnic or religious lines.  Read more