Child soldiers forgotten in Angola

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7397.1003

BMJ 2003;326:1003 ( 10 May )

News roundup

Child soldiers forgotten in Angola

London Peter Moszynski

A year after the end of Angola's devastating civil war, the needs of underage combatants have been neglected and children have been excluded from demobilisation programmes. This is the warning in a new report by Human Rights Watch, which campaigns to defend human rights worldwide.

The report cautions: "The infrastructure of the country lies in ruins with schools and health clinics destroyed and few qualified professionals to deliver services. The success of child soldier reintegration projects will be contingent on the government's increase of funding to provide basic services to all Angolans."

Both the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the government used child soldiers in the war, says the report. As many as 11 000 children were involved in the last years of the fighting. Some children received training in use of weapons and arms and fought in the . . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?