Social Debate Child Soldiers in Somalia:

[Wiilo]

The use of children as soldiers has been universally condemned as abhorrent and unacceptable. Yet over the last ten years hundreds of thousands of children have fought and died in conflicts around the world.

 

Children involved in armed conflict are frequently killed or injured during combat or while carrying out other tasks. They are forced to engage in hazardous activities such as laying mines or explosives, as well as using weapons. Child soldiers are usually forced to live under harsh conditions with insufficient food and little or no access to healthcare. They are almost always treated brutally, subjected to beatings and humiliating treatment. Punishments for mistakes or desertion are often very severe. Girl soldiers are particularly at risk of rape, sexual harassment and abuse as well as being involved in combat and other tasks.

[Passion_4_Fashion]

u know....at the beginning of the civil war in our country many children became 'soldiers' just to get by...but now things have changed since 1990 i don't understand why these children allow themselves to be used like that. Some might argue that they are only children and don't understand that they are being used.....but u know kids back home are more clever/mature than kids raised in western countries. I wanna know where are their parents? Soomaalida bini aadam nimadoodi dhan aa badalmatay dagaalki ka bacdi!

[nuune]

 

 

people or millitias are now seeing the danger involved of making children soldiers ...a future is lost, time wasted etc, so I think the number of children being used as soldiers has decreased dramatically in recent years.

[Wiilo]

Honestly I think that this issue is very interesting to debate about,,,,,,

 

There are an estimated three hundred thousand child soldiers around the world. Every year the number grows as more children are recruited for use in active combat. As the civil war broke in our country the use of child soldiers became normal, So Nomads what is your take on this?

 

Waan garan karnaa sababaha balse maxay idinla tahay arintan, sida aan oga bixi karno arintan ayada ah, iyo waliba dhaawaca dambe ay ku yeelan karto caruurtan aayatiinkooda ama mustaqbalkooda dambe?

 

Wabillaah:.........

[Alle-ubaahne]

I thank you wilo for posting this intriguing topic of great emphasis. I think it deserves many analysis since its dimentions are broad with current global instances of different forms of child soldiering to child abuses.

 

Child Soldiering or the use of children to expose warzone conflicts as shields or other means is a great concern with huge emphasis in the circles of international debates. Its something we've seen as the result of the civil unrest in Somalia whereby kids had become very knowledgeable in the usage of the weaponary as well as the aimlessness of the tribalistic wars among the Somalis. This is more evident when you look at the families who are directly affected by the wars and lost their members (esp. parents) before their eyes, or in the presence of the kids.

 

Questions that can arise from these discussions of child soldiering are always blinded by the fact of the underlying causes and circumstances that enabled these kids to have an easy access, either voluntary or forced one. But its also apparent that all of these were triggered by tragedies we inhereted from the civil war. I remember a BBC documentry that I read about the state of Mogadishu children who have lost their parents in the war. This very interesting documentary has focused a young kid who is named Mukhtar.

 

Mukhtar has lost both his parents in the war at the age of three. He was then adopted by a Mo-ri-yaan, who then trained him to take part of the war and road blockages. He sheltered at nights in an abandoned vehicles or places where people sold the narcotic khat in the daylight. This kid grows having no opportunity in the sane world of being voilence-free. And gradualy he falled in love with guns and killings.

 

In his own words, I remember Mukhtar saying that his dream is to become a famous warlord in Muqdisho so people get scared of him. Sometimes when the reporter ask Mukhtar who is your hero, he mention Saddam Hussein. At the age of 12 or 13, (I don't recall which one exactly) he owned an AK-47 gun and used to wonder around places where Mo-ri-yaan eract their street checkpoints to get hired for his gun. This young and active Mukhtar has finaly died as a result of waking up in one morning his Mo-ri-yaan fellow from asleep and which then costed Mukhtar's life, by receiving an angry reaction and a deadly shot right on his head.

 

The reporter of this documentary has mentioned that Mukhtar was an intellegent and a suitable character of his film but has become a predator as the result of the war atmosphere as well as the tragedies that claimed for his parents. Its very sad indeed if you look at somalia from such perspectives whereby the psychological mindsets of our children in back home is one of total devastation and gloom. The negative impacts of these perplexed wars among our mindless people will definately remain in the minds of those kids like Mukhtar (if they survive) in many years to come since they vividly had experienced the traumatizing tragedies as they unfold.

 

 

N.B. I will proceed from here as time permits, but let me make sure to gather my scope and previous understandings towards this significant topic as I come back soon, insha allah.

[Wiilo]

Hal su'aal uun baan waydiin, Waa maxay siyaabaha loo joojinkaro Child Soldiers in Somalia?