A two-day ministerial conference aimed at producing a plan of action to protect West African children in times of war opened on Thursday in Accra, Ghana.
"We have seen in recent armed conflicts the despicable phenomena of not only targeting children specifically, but also using them in the most cruel ways imaginable," AFP quoted Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana Janet Graham as saying.
Noting that children were recruited to fight or serve as sex slaves in the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Graham said Canada hoped to launch concrete initiatives in partnership with the Ghanaian government to boost protection for children.
The forum is co-hosted by the governments of Ghana and Canada in
collaboration with UNESCO. It is being attended by foreign and defence ministers and military officials from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
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