Child Soldiers

It is believed that there are more than 120,000 children (under 18) participating in military armed conflicts just in Africa today, some of the children as young as 7 years old. I cannot believe such a huge number...i know that there are milions and millions of people in just one country of Africa, but still, considering these kids are equivalent to US 2nd, 3rd or 4th graders 120,000 is an overwhelming amount...in my opinion 1 would be too many. And becasue these children are obviously emotionally/pyschologically immature as well as physically, they are willing to take greater risks...this is probably becasue the kids think that they are part of an elaborate game and dont really realize the harsh consequence of their actions. These children can begin as porters (carrying food or ammunition) or messengers, others as spies. It bad enough that these kids have to be subjected to this lifestyle but to use them as spies really demonstrates the extremity of their exploitation, obviously they are much less likely to be suspected on enemy territory than a grown soldier, so the men use this to their adavntage and utilize every aspect of these children, including the preconcieved notion of their innocence...completely disgusting.

I also though that it was very interesting that girl children are also used as soldiers, which we werent really exposed to in Johnny Mad Dog. In Liberia, about 1% of child soldiers were girls. However, girls play other roles as well: girlfriends or wives of rebel leaders, through researching I found out that they refer to themselves as "wartime women". Many times girls are forced to become girlfriends of rebel soldiers, and if they refuse they are simply killed; however if they do become a part of the group the risk for sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies are enormous.