mental conflict endures
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

For former child soldiers

Mental conflict endures

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Mental conflict endures

Child soldiers attend a disarmament, demobilisation
Paris - Arab Today

Haunted by indelibly painful memories, deprived of schooling and strangers to their own families -- for former child soldiers returning to normal life is often as tough as being in combat.

They face daily battles that can last years as they piece their lives together.

"I had nightmares long after being freed. I had flashbacks of fighting in the bush," says Alhaji Sawaneh, a 30-year-old from Sierra Leone.

Forced to fight from the age of 10 with Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front, Sawaneh recounted his experiences to a Paris conference that focused on the estimated 246 million children living in conflict zones worldwide.

Some 17,000 child soldiers have been recruited since 2013 in South Sudan and roughly 1,500 in Yemen since 2015, according to data published this week by UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund.

In Nigeria and neighbouring states, the Boko Haram Islamist group recruited an estimated 2,000 child fighters last year alone.

Sawaneh says he bore arms for two years before UN peacekeepers rescued him in 2000.

A child protection agency took him under its wing and has been trying to locate his family.

"That is our priority -- to reconnect a child with his family is the best means of reintegrating him into society," explains Crystal Stewart, child protection advisor with an NGO, the International Rescue Committee.

Yet that process can prove time-consuming.

"When they are kidnapped young they don't necessarily know where they are from or how old they are. That sometimes requires painstaking research," added Stewart.

In the meantime, former child fighters are fostered, but Sawaneh said his hopes of finding a loving environment were soon crushed.

"My foster family made me work at home. I was like a slave," he said.

"But I harboured a dream -- to continue with my studies."

Eventually, he managed to secure a grant to go back to school.

- 'Stigmatised' -

Studying was likewise what kept Alberto Ortiz going. The young Colombian hailing from a poverty-stricken family decided at the age of 12 to join the FARC rebel movement in a bid to escape his miserable surroundings.

"I thought I was going to solve all my problems and help my family financially," said Ortiz, now aged 22, who was also at the Paris conference.

"They (the FARC) told me if I'd had enough then I could leave -- but I found I was caught in a trap."

After three years he managed to escape and is now being aided by a government programme.

But family links have been severed.

"My father and my mother died during my absence. The other members of my family no longer wanted to talk to me. They were afraid of me."

Ortiz, now studying finance at Santiago de Cali university, also finds society shuns him for his past. 

"People such as me are stigmatised. I only told my story to one friend. Nobody else knows," he added.

Helping former child fighters to recover their confidence and reintegrate into their communities is a long, drawn-out process.

"Former child soldiers can be rejected or killed because they have committed violence," explains Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's emergency programmes director.

The organisation is trying to convince local religious leaders, who have some influence over their followers, to welcome former fighters back into society.

"But it takes time," Fontaine adds. 

Following the conference in Paris, Tunisia, Kazakhstan and Myanmar joined 105 other countries who have already signed up to principles and guidelines drawn up in 2007 on child fighters and their social reintegration.

In the ensuing decade, more than 65,000 children have been rescued from armed forces and armed, according to UNICEF, even if thousands of boys and girls remain in their clutches.

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

GMT 01:58 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

France sanctions businesses linked

GMT 08:45 2017 Thursday ,12 October

France, Qatar neck-and-neck

GMT 10:07 2017 Wednesday ,15 March

Over 800 health workers killed

GMT 06:34 2017 Wednesday ,18 January

Israeli forces kill Palestinian

GMT 08:37 2017 Saturday ,14 January

Abbas may 'reverse' Israel recognition
Arab Today, arab today

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

mental conflict endures mental conflict endures

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

mental conflict endures mental conflict endures

 



GMT 10:10 2017 Thursday ,09 February

3 Important Elements You Have to Consider

GMT 04:03 2017 Monday ,24 April

Bella Hadid ‘dying’ to visit Palestine

GMT 19:25 2016 Wednesday ,25 May

The Brooklyn Desk by Oeuf NYC

GMT 07:49 2018 Friday ,05 January

2 Russian servicemen killed

GMT 07:58 2018 Monday ,01 January

Italy orders N. Korea's envoy to leave

GMT 08:45 2017 Wednesday ,20 December

US military imagines war without GPS

GMT 17:26 2017 Sunday ,17 December

Putin thanks Trump for help in foiling attack plot

GMT 22:19 2017 Monday ,16 October

Cairo-hosted Fatwa conf. new contribution

GMT 02:27 2016 Friday ,10 June

Video hints Japan abetting illegal ivory trade

GMT 07:04 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

1,883 Bahrainis found jobs in March

GMT 14:24 2016 Tuesday ,22 November

Citi and JPMorgan top list of ‘globally banks’

GMT 21:43 2017 Friday ,01 September

People question Nazaruddin`s repatriation expenses

GMT 09:41 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

OIC concerned over violence in Mali

GMT 01:30 2017 Friday ,27 October

May22/Jun21

GMT 05:38 2016 Friday ,30 December

Dubai Airports divert 13 flights due to heavy fog

GMT 11:38 2017 Saturday ,14 January

Mexico names new ambassador to US

GMT 12:03 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

Kuwait to mark World Water Day

GMT 15:00 2017 Wednesday ,27 September

HM King receives invitation from Egyptian President

GMT 02:45 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

President Bashir arrives in Chad

GMT 02:45 2017 Wednesday ,16 August

Turkmen President Visits Pakistan
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday