Children are often recruited by armed forces and groups and the youngest one to get recruited in 2019 was only six years old, which showed the severity, according to a latest report on children and war.
The number of children recruited and used by armed forces in 2019 rose by 639 from 2018 to 7,845, according to “Stop the War on Children” report by Save the Children. A striking thing is that 20 per cent of the recruitment in Yemen was below 15 years of age.
The Save the Children said that 6,632 (84 per cent) of the verified violations in 2019 involved boys. Meanwhile, 866 (11 per cent) involved girls. It also said that the largest number of verified cases of recruitment and use of children was in African countries. These countries accounted for 66 per cent of child recruitment.
The Save the Children report showed that nearly 20 per cent of the global child recruits occurred in Somalia. Myanmar also saw an increase of child recruits. As many as 250 child recruits happened in 2019, which was three times higher than in 2015. South Sudan also witnessed a 65 per cent increase in 2019. Lebanon is another country that witnessed child recruits. About 43 children in the 11–17 age group was recruited in Lebanon by armed groups. These children were used in combat roles. Syria also recruited children for combat roles.
