Several international human rights groups issued statements in the past week about the ongoing campaign of kidnappings in Central Africa. Amnesty International highlights in this brief how more than 350 men, women and children have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in recent weeks. Amnesty is especially concerned about the plight of the women and children, who often are forced to become sex slaves or child combatants.
Meanwhile, I found this background paper from Human Rights Watch on what actually happens to those children who are abducted from their homes and forced to become child soldiers. The paper describes the experiences of child soldiers in seven countries and illustrates how these children are coerced into becoming perpetrators of human rights violations, thus fuelling an ongoing pattern of violence.
