A regional conference on the recruitment and use of children in armed forces and groups will take place 7-9 June in N’Djamena, Chad – organized by UNICEF and the Government of Chad to seek international commitments on ending the use of child soldiers and better providing for their re-integration and care.
N’DJAMENA, Chad, 28 May 2010: For Dowa Samna, 19, working at a garage in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, is a far cry from his former life in the armed forces. The former child soldier recalls that conditions in the military were rough. – We did not eat regular meals, and we had to share everything, he said.
Dowa joined the Chadian National Army when he was 16 but was demobilized a year later when the authorities discovered his true age. – We were so relieved when Dowa came home. We were so afraid he would never come back, says his father, Gong-na Samna.
Pariser – principperne giver håb
Decades of conflict in Chad have left children like Dowa vulnerable to recruitment by armed forces and rebel groups. There are an estimated 7.000 to 10.000 child soldiers in the country.
There is reason for hope. Dowa’s release from the army followed a 2007 agreement between UNICEF and the Government of Chad to intensify efforts aimed at getting children out of armed groups and forces and back into society.
This accord, in turn, followed Chad’s signed commitment to the Paris Principles, an international agreement to stop the recruitment of children in combatant and non-combatant roles.
Veje til reintegrering
In accordance with the Paris Principles, under-age recruits enter a UNICEF-sponsored rehabilitation process when members of Chadian rebel groups are captured, or when the groups sign peace deals with the government. The authorities also pay about 830 US dollar to each rebel fighter who demobilizes.
Demobilized youths are brought to interim care centres in N’Djamena that are run by the non-governmental organization CARE International. At the centres, they receive psychological counselling and learn skills to help them reintegrate into society.
Since 2007 more than 800 children have gone through this UNICEF-supported process.
