Children at War: Reasons Children Become Soldier

It is considered necessary evil during the war, but it truly sacrifices the lives of thousands of innocent children. Presently 300,000 children are fighting in war in Africa, Sudan, Afghanistan and countless other countries. Normally, 14 to 18 children are recruited or kidnapped, but there are also 11-year-old children. Child soldiers are defined as "any and all regular or irregular armies under the age of 18 or any child belonging to any armed groups - boys or girls" (Kaplan).

Children in the theater act as perpetrators and may become children's soldiers. It is estimated that there are about 300,000 children soldiers in the world, and 40% of them are girls. Children are also victims of armed conflict. They were forced to evacuate as child soldiers, suffered from sexually transmitted diseases and refused access to education. The presence of children in war can be traced back to the medieval and Napoleonic wars. The children participated in the American Civil War and made a great contribution to the new market war in Virginia (May 15, 1864). Children also fought during World War II, especially known as Hitler Youth. However, in modern times, as the proportion of casualties of civilians increases, the number of child victims is also increasing. In the 18th century, from the 19th century to the early 20th century, about half of the victims of the war were civilians, by the end of the 1980s it was almost 90%.

The casualties of most children are civilians. However, one of the most disappointing developments in recent years is the increasing use of infants as soldiers. In a sense, this is not new. Over the centuries children have been engaged in military operations - as a child's assessment at a warship, or as a boy of a drummer at the battlefield of Europe. In fact, for infantry the term "infantry" may mean a group of young people. The terrible thing today is the use of children as an upgrade for warriors. Recently, thousands of children under the age of 16 participated in the war in 25 countries. 8 Only in 1988, 200 thousand people participated in the war.