War

Fighting between or within countries is an inevitable process as people change and have new ideas on the government and its people. When the fighting escalates, it is considered a war whether large or small. In all wars, casualties will happen. However, nothing is sadder than when children lose their young lives. Most child casualties are those of civilians but throughout history, children have also been used as soldiers in war. Child soldiers would aid in fighting, cooking, being an informant or spy or even for sexual purposes.

The first use of child soldiers to date is from Ancient Greece specifically Sparta. The government required males at the age of seven to begin training and fighting in the military. The Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages created an elite team of child soldiers as young as eight known as the Janissary corps. During the 18th and 19th century, the British navy enlisted young boys to help run the ship and prepare the cannons and during the American Civil War almost 5% of all soldiers were under 18 years of age. Throughout World War I and World War II, children were used to bolster army numbers throughout Europe and Asia. This practice has continued through terrorist organizations, the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war, and throughout many countries in Africa (Gale, 2013).

The United Nations releases a list every year of states and non-state armed groups that recruit children. In 2016, there were 7 countries on the list (Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen) and 51 non-state armed groups. These numbers do not include the 43 states that train children under 18 for armed conflict since they do not use them until they are of age (Child Soldiers International, 2016). The United Nations created the Straight 18 standard for countries to follow which is no recruitment of anyone under the age of 18. However, many large countries including the United States have younger enlistments ages such as 17 or even 16 although many of these recruits will not see fighting until they are over 18. As of 2016, it was estimated that over 250,000 children are serving in armed militaries and states (Child Soldiers International, 2016).

Studies have been done to show the trauma and PTSD that child soldiers have. One study done on former child soldiers of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army found that 97% of the 71 children they examined had a clinically significant score towards PTSD on the IES-R test. Many of these children with a mean age of 12-9 years saw people being killed during their abduction, had to kill other people sometimes including their own blood relatives (2%), and over half of them were forced to fight some without any training (Derluyn, Schuyten, & Temmerman, 2004). In a different study on former child soldiers from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo showed 34.9% with PTSD as rated from the CPTSD-RI test. For these 169 soldiers, over half reported to killing someone, 84% had been severely beaten and almost 30% had been sexually abused (Byaer, Klasen, & Adam, 2007). The injustices that these children have experienced and seen, has ruined whole generations and possibly future ones since these children only know fighting and war and children are the next leaders in all countries.