Chad has agreed to release all former child combatants held in detention, while armed rebel groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have also committed to freeing any children in their ranks, a top United Nations envoy announced June 2
after a six day trip to the two countries. In Chad the Government has agreed to let UN agencies visit army camps and training centers to verify the releases and identify children, Coomaraswamy told reporters in New York, after completing her visit. A Government task force on reintegration of children will also be created. (UN News Service)
“I have been given assurances that parties involved in conflict have agreed to free children in both countries,” the UN's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a statement.
Coomaraswamy also noted that despite this there still have not been any commitments made non-government armed groups, who continue to “recruit a great many children.” Coomaraswamy, also stated that the UN was looking to get to the root of the issue of child soldiers in various countries where child soldiers are recruited. An estimated 300,000 or more child soldiers are actively fighting in at least 30 countries around the world, according to both Amnesty International and UNICEF.
For more information see:
Early to War: Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict (July 2007) – A 46-page report documenting how the Chadian army, its allied paramilitary militias and rebel forces have used and recruited child soldiers in both northern Chad and along the eastern border with Sudan's Darfur region. The report is based on interviews with senior officers in the Chadian military as well as current child soldiers themselves.
