Africa - Child Soldiers - Are child soldiers always forced to become child soldiers?
In this picture you see a militant scouting and if not enough children are willing to fight they will seize kids.
These are kids that are in training camp but sometimes when they think the kids are good enough they will just take them even though they haven't finished the camp.
This graph shows how child soldiers has increased and decrease throughout the years of 1999 and 2003 in Africa
Kids getting threatened to be beaten for not doing something or not doing something correctly.
These are children that are being taken away by militants and they have no permission from the kids or their parents.
This graph shows the ages and amounts of soldiers. It also shows that there is just as much older people then children that fight in the war.
Child soldiers aren't always forced to become soldiers some of them have motivations to become child soldiers. Such as wanting a family so they join the military so the military becomes their family. In some cases they are forced by their parents because their parents want them to fight for their tribe. But, in some places the kids are "scouted" out from military training camps then they get abducted to fight for someone else. But in some cases when they abduct the kids they let them later on, go back home and eat dinner with their family's or go to school but this is rare or only once in their military lifetime. There are people that are concerned about the kids being abducted and forced to become child soldiers. But no one cares enough to do something about it, because this could cause more war. But its against the war law to force children to become soldiers but most people are doing it because no one is telling them not too.
M= Child soldiers are both forced and not forced to become soldiers because some children signed up to fight because of certain motivations that they had, but some kids were kidnapped and were taken without any permission and that's being forced to fight in the war. E/A= According to UNICEF, when investigating child soldiers, "The children weren't being forced because of their motivations to join the war." This shows that the children aren't always forced that they also sign up. E/A= In an article by Lizzie Dearden, child soldiers was reported on, "Boys as young as 12 were being seized from the community to fight in the war." These boys were forced because the militants had no permission to do this. E/A= In researching child soldiers recruitment, "One boy recalled how they were forced to train, and if they didn't train they were beaten heavily" (Burridge). Forced because the kids were scared of getting beaten so they would do what they were told. E/A= In an investigation of child soldiers recruitment, "Hundreds of children have been abducted or coerced into their ranks in the past month alone." (Schein). Forced because they are taking them without any permission or without them volunteering. Parenthetical citations = authors last name or 1st 3 words of title. E/A= In an article by Lizzie Dearden, How child soldiers are being forced to become soldiers was investigated, "Many of the children were kidnapped but had been training in a training camp." They were forced because they weren't out of training camp and they didn't have permission to take them. L= So yes, some kids are fighting in the war freely and that's there choice but there are kids that aren't and that are fighting in the war against there own will, and no one is doing anything to help them.