There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers according to UNICEF.
UNICEF estimates there are 250,000 child soldiers globally but no one knows the numbers for sure. Conditions are horrendous for both boys and girls. Boys tend to be used as soldiers and girls as prostitutes but they are also used as spies, messengers and servants.
A lot of these children are vulnerable because they live in poverty. It's understandable how some will voluntarily participate to survive but others are recruited forcibly.
I think war is horrible enough but robbing children of their childhood and forcing them to do drugs and kill people seems seriously evil.
"It's very bad to recruit small children into the army. For a child who knows nothing you must teach him how to love people, not to kill them." (Chad child soldier, aged 12, tells of horror, Stephanie Hancock)
"When they came to my village, they asked my older brother whether he was ready to join the militia. He was just 17 and he said no; they shot him in the head. Then they asked me if I was ready to sign, so what could I do - I didn't want to die." A former child soldier taken when he was 13. (BBC report.)
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