UN warns Haiti’s capital blockaded, no aid for malnourished children
United Nations/Port-au-Prince, Haiti Reuters Haiti’s capital is almost completely cut off by air, sea and land blockades as gang violence intensifies, stopping aid from getting to 58,000 children with the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, the head of the UN children’s agency warned on Monday. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said two-thirds of Haiti’s children […]
Colombia must do more to stop child recruitment by armed groups – NGO
Bogota, ColombiaReuters Colombia’s government must increase efforts to stop armed groups from recruiting children, as it pushes for peace and surrender deals with rebels and crime gangs, thinktank International Crisis Group said on Friday, warning recruitment is rising. Colombian leftist President Gustavo Petro has made “total peace” – an end to almost six decades of […]
Essay: Slavery and war are tightly connected – but we had no idea just how much until we crunched the data
Scholar of modern slavery – MONTI DATTA, ANGHARAD SMITH, and KEVIN BALES – look, in an article first published on The Conversation, about what their research shows about the connection between slavery and conflict…
US places Russia on human trafficking, child soldier lists
Washington DC, USReuters The United States on Tuesday placed Russia on lists of countries engaged in a “policy or pattern” of human trafficking and forced labor or whose security forces or government-backed armed groups recruit or use child soldiers. The State Department included the lists in its annual human trafficking report, which for the first […]
Yemen’s conflict: Child soldiering continues despite Houthi promise
SAMY MAGDY, of Associated Press, reports on how, despite an agreement with the UN in April to halt the practice, the Houthis continue to recruit children into the military ranks to fight in the country’s ongoing civil war…
UN: Yemen’s Houthi rebels agree to stop using child soldiers
United NationsAP Yemen’s Houthi rebels have agreed to rid their ranks of child soldiers, who have fought by the thousands during the country’s seven years of civil war, the United Nations said Monday. The Houthis signed what the UN described as an “action plan” to end and prevent recruiting or using children in armed conflict, […]
ICC says Central African Republic war crimes suspect surrendered
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Reuters The International Criminal Court on Monday said the former Central African Republic’s militia leader Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka had been surrendered to the court by the authorities of Chad for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Mokom, a national coordinator of the so-called anti-balaka militias, is accused of crimes against […]
One in eight children found at risk of becoming child soldiers
Thomson Reuters Foundation One in eight of the world’s children – more than 300 million – live in conflict zones where they are at risk of becoming child soldiers, a charity warned on Tuesday, saying boosting school access was vital in fighting forced recruitment. The United Nations called for a global ceasefire last year to […]
Number of children recruited into conflict grows in West and Central Africa
Dakar, SenegalReuters West and Central Africa has recorded the highest number of children recruited into conflict of any region in the world, and the number is growing, the UN children’s agency said on Tuesday. Children are used as fighters as well as messengers, spies, cooks, cleaners, guards and porters by armed groups from Mali to […]
More than 18,000 children recruited by Colombia’s FARC rebels – court
Bogota, ColombiaReuters At least 18,667 children in Colombia were forced to join the now-demobilised FARC guerrilla group and subjected to abuses and treatment considered war crimes over a 20-year period, the country’s transitional justice court (JEP) said on Tuesday. The JEP’s investigation, which will see 26 former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia […]