Africa-Press – Mozambique. One hundred Mozambican officers and sergeants are being trained to deal with the growing number of child soldiers on battlefields in the north and in other conflicts in Mozambique, official sources said.
The initiative, part of the programme “Preventing the use of child soldiers in Mozambique”, of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), was launched Tuesday in Chimoio, Manica, central Mozambique.
The aim is to specialise members of the armed forces (FADM) in respecting, promoting and protecting the rights of children, especially those involved in conflicts in Cabo Delgado (north), and in Manica and Sofala provinces in the centre of the country.
“The situation requires that the FADM be prepared for facing children, not only as belligerents,” argued Carla Mussa, representing Unicef Mozambique, stressing that several children enter the conflicts as victims.
Several children are exploited and used in their different roles, “on the battlefield, as informers, as carriers of materials”, particularly in the armed conflict involving terrorists in Cabo Delgado.
“In the situation where the defence forces are confronted with an armed child, they have to have the necessary tools to assess what the threats are and to use proportionally the necessary prevention and mitigation measures”, before referring the children safely to the supervisory authorities, Carla Mussa stressed.
“From the moment we manage to look at a child as a victim, all the treatment given to this child will be different” for his or her recovery and integration into society, Carla Mussa added.
The commander of the fifth infantry battalion in Chimoio, Colonel Lucas Impide, acknowledged that the different specialties of the Mozambican army in the Northern Operational Theatre face difficulties in dealing with child soldiers on battlefields, and therefore considered training for the context of the conflict crucial.
“Current wars, especially those of terrorism, often use children as soldiers. Children are instrumentalised, and sometimes when we come across children on the battlefield, we have found it very difficult to act or interact” with them, said Lucas Impide.
“The fight here is to get the child out safe and sound, even though he is wielding a weapon, we have to rescue and integrate him into society,” he said.
The training, the first to take place in Mozambique involving members of the army, and lasting 15 days, is being led by the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace & Security, which specialises in issues of peace and security for children involved in conflict situations.
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