AU decries use of child soldiers in Somalia

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has decried the use of child soldiers by armed groups in Somalia.

Francisco Madeira, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, said armed groups in Somalia had many child soldiers within their ranks, hence the need for a collective approach to enhance the war against the vice.

"If we manage to make the extremist ideology unattractive, and if we manage to tackle the problem of child soldiers, Al-Shabaab (Islamist group) will be wiped out because they will have nowhere to recruit soldiers," Madeira said in a statement released on Thursday.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), there could be as high as 5,000 child soldiers in Somalia as Al-Shabaab, which has been battling the Somali government, continues its recruiting campaigns.

Madeira said the continued recruitment and use of child soldiers by armed groups in Somalia was a contributing factor to the protracted nature of the conflict in the country.

"Children are fighting wars created by adults," Madeira told a three-day workshop on the prevention of recruitment of child soldiers in Mogadishu.

The AU envoy said key in the campaign would be to counter radicalization and extremist ideology used by militants to influence young people into joining armed groups.

Militant groups such as Al-Shabaab have for long exploited the high poverty rates in Somalia to recruit vulnerable children.

AMISOM's Child Protection Advisor, Musa Gbow, cited Somalia's vast and rugged terrain as one of the challenges the AMISOM had faced in trying to liberate children in armed groups. Endit