| Child Soldiers |
COMBINED NATIONAL STATISTICS * It is estimated that at least 108,000 children are involved in the fighting. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999)
* In recent years, with approximately 90% of children having no access to schooling, the proportion of child soldiers has risen from roughly 30% to at least 45%. (UN, Graca Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, 26 August 1996, citing Rachel Brett and Margaret McCallin, Children: The Invisible Soldiers, April 1996) GOVERNMENT FORCES STATISTICS* In August 1999, the United Nations estimated that up to 5,000 students aged 15 years and above, left their schools and joined the Taliban's holy war. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing P. Lobjois, "Pakistanais fiers de mourir en Afghanistan: recrutés par les taliban, ils pensaient combattre les Russes", Libération, 13 August 1999) * The Annual Report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused the Taliban of recruiting soldiers as young as 14 from religious schools in Pakistan. ("Taliban denies charge, it uses child soldiers", The Plain Dealer, 1 December 1999) OPPOSITION GROUP STATISTICS * The Northern Alliance, had a combined strength of over 60,000, of which about 45% were children below 18 years of age. (Rädda Barnen, Childwar database, citing UN, Graca Machel, Case Study on Afghanistan, 1994-1995) COMBINED NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Research conducted in 1995 revealed that the youngest child soldier in the 20-year-old war in Afghanistan was 13 years old, however, other sources claimed that even younger children were members of the various armed groups. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000 citing UN, Graca Machel, Case Study on Afghanistan, 1994-1995) * UNICEF notes that thousands of children are involved in the ongoing civil war on both sides. Although unable to supply specific figures, the UN affirms that the problem is worse now than it was in the past. (Rädda Barnen, Childwar database) NOTES ON GOVERNMENT FORCES* There have been many reports of child and adolescent recruitment by the Taliban although no estimates of total numbers are available. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing Rädda Barnen, Childwar database) * No girls have been recruited by the Taliban, but there have been reports of forced marriages of girls from Shamali and Mazar. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing Rädda Barnen database, citing some NGO staff in Pakistan)
* In 1998, Afghanistan's Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, decreed that followers who are too young must leave his fighting militia. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing "Row over Taliban child soldier claim", BBC News, 1 December 1999)
* To fill the ranks caused by numerous casualties following unsuccessful attempts to conquer the northern provinces in 1997, the Taliban were said to be recruiting more and more young men in their early teens. (Rädda Barnen, Childwar database, citing War Resisters International, The CONCODOC Project, 1998) * A UN official who visited the country in the fall of 1996 said there were many children, as young as 13 years of age, among the Taliban. (Rädda Barnen, Childwar database) * When Taliban became party to the civil war in 1994, they forcibly recruited young Afghan refugees attending religious schools in Pakistan by press-ganging, house-to-house searches, and seizing children from secondary schools. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing War Resisters' International, The CONCODOC Project, 1998) NOTES ON OPPOSITION GROUPS* Children have reportedly been seen in the ranks of the Northern Alliance. One journalist reported of a child who helped unload Soviet-era MI-6 rockets from a helicopter in a northern Afghan village, Andarab. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing "Afghanistan's deadly war is child's play", AFP, 3 November 1998)
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