The childhood without future of the children of war: more than 93,000 children have been recruited in the last 15 years

This Sunday marks the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers. It is estimated that between 2005 and 2020 more than 93,000 children worldwide have been forced to be soldiers. Most are kidnapped, but the extreme poverty and violence in their homes forces others to volunteer.

It is the story of Abdul, that at the age of 15 he was recruited by an armed group. “They put bad ideas in my head, they gave me drugs and I changed... I only thought about getting a weapon and killing”, he recalls, as can be seen in the video above. He was “relatively” lucky because he managed to escape, although two years later he recounts that his thoughts are still “not good” since it will “repeat bad images”.

Lorraine Cobas, head of emergencies at Unicef ​​Spain, explained to laSexta that these children “are forced to be fighters, cooks, porters, sex slaves, human bombs…”. “They have witnessed atrocities and They have been forced to commit them.” points out.