After more than a decade of war in Syria, where some 90% of the population now lives in poverty, children are working as fighters for the armed factions to help feed their families.
Tag: child soldiers
UNICEF marks the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers on Feb. 12. Also known as Red Hand Day, it calls for urgent action to end the recruitment of children by armed groups. Youth are increasingly vulnerable as conflicts around the world become more brutal, intense and widespread. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/3vZmtWQyE1w expand=1] UNICEF for International Day Against The Use Of Child Soldiers — Stevie Mann/UNICEF/OneShot This image comes during a demobilization ceremony near the town of Rumbek, in central South Sudan, as the photographer, Stevie Mann, captured the moment that adolescent boys walk away from the weapons they’d carried. The […]
The minority Yazidi people were killed and taken captive by the Islamic State. Once held as sex slaves and child soldiers, several survivors tell of the psychopathic madness of the jihadists.
Orphaned and forced to live on the streets at just 5, Amporn Wathanavong had a miserable childhood, and was lured to fight in the jungles along the Cambodian border. But he ultimately got an education and founded an organization to help poor orphans.
ALEPPO — With Syria’s civil war now its fifth year and showing no sign of ending, virtually all sides have been recruiting and training children to kill. Situated in the opposition-controlled outskirts of Aleppo, the Abdul Razzaq Military Academy is one of the most organized programs for preparing youngsters for the battlefield. Established by Sergeant Abdul Razzaq, a Syrian army defector, the academy’s instructors train some 150 children from surrounding areas on the grounds of an abandoned school in the village of Ehtemlat for two hours a day. Other than saying that the academy is “the achievement of his lifetime,” […]