The African Child Soilder - 4334 Words

The African Child Soldiers â€Å"The child soldier is described as a ‘pint-sized, tireless baby Rambo who spends his or hers tender years roaming the battlefields of Africa’s civil wars.† â€Å"African children are being targeted across the continent as tools of war.† In today’s day and age, children from all over the world are real soldiers in conflicts instead of playing toy soldiers. These children are being denied their childhood and instead are given a violent and gruesome role to play in brutal conflicts. These children are fighting wars that they had no responsibility in creating. Children are fighting in wars created by their elders. Children are replacing their toys with guns, like AK-47’s and instead of having a chance to attend†¦show more content†¦Therefore, children were usually forced into such dangers as the frontlines of open conflict or either sent ahead of other troops to ensure that possible minefields were safe, whilst in rare cases children have also been used in suicide missions. In addition to this, the majority of child soldiers have transformed their situation in the war into a kind of game, because they are unabl e to fully comprehend or accept the real consequences that war can inflict. In a way, by making the war into a game it is a coping mechanism for these children. Once recruited these children do various tasks, they are not simply used as soldiers in conflict but also do many other duties, such as being; messengers, guards, cooks, mechanics, porters, spies, labors, human shields, human minesweepers, decoys, servants and also sexual slaves. Girls are also recruited, in most cases, they can make up a total of one third of all child soldiers, however in the majority of cases they are not just recruited to be soldier, but to be either raped or to become ‘wives’ to military commanders. Girls who refuse to become ‘wives’ are murdered in front of other girls to make an example of and to make clear that they have no choice in the matter. In addition to this girls are also used to abduct other children for the military forces and also take part in food raids. This sto ry from a