10 Worst Countries Using Child Soldiers

Child Soldiers:

What are Child Soldiers?

Child soldiers are children under the age of 18 who are working as soldiers fighting people using guns. Child soldiers are either recruited or forced to join military forces; some children also volunteer to join the forces. Child soldiers also have other work than just fighting, they also work as spy, cook, messenger, and some child soldiers are also used as sex slaves.

The map above shows different countries that use child soldiers and the countries' rank and the category they fit in with using child soldiers.

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Children are used in war because they are easy to manipulate, they obey the commanders and leaders of the armed groups out of fear or because they want to avenge the family they have lost at the hands of other armed groups. Using a child soldier to fight in wars takes away their Human Rights and freedom to education. Children under the age of 18 are recruited or forced to join armed groups, some children also volunteer to join. In the Central African Republic, there are 10,000 children that have been in armed groups. About 4,693 children have been released from the battlefield. Children who have been released are sometimes asked to join the armed forces again. Some children choose to join armed forces because their family members are either killed or taken away from them. When in school, children who served in armed forces sometimes suffer trauma from the battlefield, having flashbacks of what they did when they were serving the forces. Using children to fight in war affects their right to education because they are taken away for months or years to serve in the forces instead of studying.