The Chadian army and its allied paramilitary forces are keeping thousands of child soldiers out of demobilisation efforts, despite the government’s promises to release underage fighters from military service, Human Rights Watch say in a new report.
On 19 July, the UN Security Council’s working group on children in armed conflict will meet to discuss Security Council responses to the use of child soldiers and other human rights abuses against children in Chad’s armed conflict.
In May, the Chadian government pledged to cooperate with UNICEF in identifying and demobilising child soldiers in the ranks of its military. Since then, several hundred children, some as young as 8 years old, have been released from a military base in central Chad.
But none belonged to the national army; all came from a government-aligned paramilitary group. UNICEF’s requests to visit two other bases, both in conflict zones in eastern Chad, have not been granted by Chadian government officials.
“The Chadian government is failing on its promise to remove children from its armed forces,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should demand that the Chadian government and its allied forces end child recruitment and release children from their ranks.”
Report findings
The 46-page report, “Early to War: Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict,” documents how the Chadian army, its allied paramilitary militias and rebel forces have used and recruited child soldiers in both northern Chad and along the eastern border with Sudan’s Darfur region. The report is based on interviews with senior officers in the Chadian military as well as current child soldiers themselves.