the pandemic has accentuated the phenomenon

It was about twenty years ago. Sierra Leone is in the midst of a civil war. Ibrahim was then 15 years old when rebels attacked his village, captured him and made him a soldier. “It was noon and it was the first time I saw someone being killed right in front of me. It was an old man from my town. That day they took me and gave me a armed”, he explains. In 2020, 8,521 children were recruited and used according to the UN. Mainly in Somalia, Burma, Syria or the Central African Republic. Behind these numbers are girls and boys whose childhoods are being destroyed, sexually enslaved and forced to kill. In 2020, 12,643 children were freed from their executioners.

“The pandemic has come to accentuate the phenomenon by first dropping out of school, and then economic difficulties. Families are sometimes tempted to let their children join these groups which make them false promises of care, food and education”explains Camille Romain des Boscs, Director General of the NGO Vision du Monde. “The intensification of conflicts and their multiplication have effectively increased the number of children. One in five in a conflict situation and therefore at increased risk of being recruited”she laments.