The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has condemned using Children as soldiers in Somalia. As many as 5000 child soldiers are in Al Shabaab in Somalia according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“If we manage to make the extremist ideology unattractive, and if we manage to tackle the problem of child soldiers, Al-Shabaab (Islamist group) will be wiped out because they will have nowhere to recruit soldiers,” said Francisco Madeira, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia
According to Madeira, child soldiers are being recruited by armed groups in Somalia due to the conflict in the country and extreme poverty.
The AU is working towards an approach to fight armed terrorist groups from using child soldiers in their ranks as it is being done currently according to Xinhua
