Child Soldiers in Africa and Implications for Nigeria

Children are said to be the future. Therefore, they need to be properly nurtured so that they can become meaningful members of the society. Some children in Africa have had a lot of challenges in terms of their development as a result of some vulnerabilities that they have been exposed to such as poverty, illiteracy, broken homes and disease. In addition, the various armed conflicts in Africa made them more vulnerable, and easier for armed groups to forcefully recruit or brainwash them into joining them. As a result, children also took part in some of the atrocities such as killing, maiming and raping of people that these armed groups were involved in. Nigeria needs to put measures in place to reduce some of these vulnerabilities such as by providing free and basic education, keeping the children off the streets so that their chances of being lured by armed groups will be greatly reduced.