UNICEF helps demobilise 4,000 child soldiers

Nearly 4,000 child soldiers have been demobilised in 15 provinces of Afghanistan under a UN-backed programme, a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. The Child Soldiers Demoblisation and Reintegration Programme is designed to target an estimated 8,000 such children in the country mostly forcibly conscripted to fighting forces in the last years of more than two decades of armed conflict and civil war. “The success of the child soldier programme to date is a major achievement and it is a very positive sign that young people in this country really want to make a positive contribution to the future of their communities,” UNICEF spokesman Edward Carwardine told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. Carwardine said a total of 3,998 boys, the majority aged between 14 to 17 years old, have been demobilised in north, northeast, east and central Afghanistan since the programme began in February. “While efforts were made to identify eligible girls, information gathered during demobilisation indicates that in fact girls appear not to have been attached to the fighting forces.” The child soldier demobilisation effort is running parallel to the UN-backed main Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration initiative (DDR) programme, which is expected to target over 50,000 ex-soldiers across the country. According to UNICEF, the criteria for eligibility in the scheme are that a child soldier should have been, or still is, in a military unit which has a formal command structure and they should have been involved in activities that are directly related to that unit. Each of the demobilised children then receives a package of support, starting with their registration in the programme’s database, receipt of photo identity cards, medical and psychosocial assessments and briefing sessions on mine risk education and reintegration options. UNICEF said all demobilised children had also been offered voluntary testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). After demobilisation, each demobilised child has the opportunity to participate in a number of reintegration options, including returning to education or enrolling in vocational training programmes to learn a practical skill. “The biggest challenge is the time between demobilising youngsters and finding a suitable reintegration option for them such as training and education.” Cawardine said the focus of the programme was on community participation. Of the 4,000, some 1,400 of these former child soldiers have been enrolled in programmes alongside other vulnerable children from the same community.“This programme aims to provide former child soldiers with practical opportunities in the community that will enable them to earn an income, support their families and develop basic education skills.”