Afghan Child Soldiers Will Take Up Arms Again, Unless Aid Continues -UN

Charity News Online

Afghanistan's former child soldiers will return to fighting unless the United Nations is able to keep operating training projects to bring them into civilian society, the UN Children's Fund and the World Food Program said.

“Instead of self-sufficient tailors and carpenters and mechanics helping to boost the development of their communities, and the nation as a whole, there will be thousands of poor hungry and frustrated former child soldiers,'' Richard Lee, a WFP spokesman, said Thursday in the Afghan capital, Kabul. They will be the “perfect recruiting pool for insurgents and other armed groups.”The WFP will be forced to end its support for young trainees in the second half of this year unless it receives additional donations, Lee said.

Afghanistan emerged from more than two decades of civil war, involving war lords and militia groups, with the ousting of the Taliban regime in the U.S.-led war on terrorism in 2001. Taliban fighters have stepped up their attacks in recent months as forces of the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan army expand their operations into southern and eastern provinces. More than 60,000 former militiamen surrendered in Afghanistan under a UN-supported program that began after 2001.

Unicef's programs include teaching and training young people in skills such as carpentry, weaving and sewing, the UN said. The WFP's monthly food aid ration for trainees and their families is a ``powerful incentive'' for Afghans to attend classes, it said.

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