Reintegrating former child soldiers into their communities in northern Uganda: A case study

Abstract

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon (2008), estimates that 250 000 children are currently serving as combatants around the globe, which represents 10 per cent of all global combatants.
Although the definition of ‘children’ and therefore ‘child soldiers’ differs between countries and cultures, in this paper, a child soldier is a boy or girl under the age of 18 who is compulsorily or voluntarily recruited or otherwise used in hostilities by armed forces, paramilitaries, civil defence units or other armed groups (Machel 2000). ‘Formerly abducted children’ (FAC) is the term which is now generally used for children who have returned from captivity by armed forces, but in this analysis we use both terms. In the past, the term ‘child soldier’ was used, but it is no longer acceptable because specialists in the field believe that not all children who are conscripted into armed groups are used as soldiers. Wherever there is conflict in Africa, there are children serving as soldiers, their duties being more or less the same as an adult soldier’s duties. These children are recruited to fight, kill, loot and destroy property, and lay mines both in their own and neighbouring countries. They are also a lowcost source of labour used by armies as cooks, cleaners, porters, messengers and spies and for their sexual services as ‘forced wives’ (Hick 2001; Hoiskar 2001). Traditional gender markers are blurred here, with girls forced to bear arms and boys forced to render sexual services. Girls are not only the victims of intrusive traumatic events and sexual abuse but are direct participants in and perpetrators of atrocities. In Uganda, evidence suggests that girls participate fully in warfare and have been able to obtain positions of command (Onekalit 2005).