Those are the headlines to keep it here on aljazeera inside story is next then more news after that keep it or. The number of child soldiers is expanding and many war zones according to the u. N. Tens of thousands of children are involved in conflicts in over twenty countries around the world so what should be done to stop this practice this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im home monday marks the International Day against the use of child soldiers its a problem that shows no sign of ending in fact many Rights Groups and the u. N. Say its getting worse there are tens of thousands of children around the world putting their lives at risk and the global effort to fight this doesnt have the money it needs in two thousand and fifteen less than one percent of the estimated one hundred seventy four billion dollars of International Aid was spent on this issue. But its not all doom and gloom there has been some progress at least five thousand child soldiers were released and integrated into society last year in places like democratic republic of congo one hundred sixty seven countries have now ratified the International Treaty which bans the conscription of children under the age of eighteen the un has highlighted fourteen countries where the problem is still a concern its figures from last year show more than three thousand children were recruited by armed groups in democratic republic of congo around forty percent are girls in Northern Nigeria unicef says boko haram used eighty three children as socalled human bombs in the first half of last year thats the practice of forcing children to become suicide bombers in two thousand and seventeen the number of child soldiers doubled in the middle east particularly in yemen with more than nearly two thousand children some as young as ten recruited to fight and in south sudan at least nineteen thousand child soldiers are involved in conflict the un has obtained the release of almost two thousand child soldiers so far in south sudan but the situation remains particularly alarming habit morgan has been talking to a few former child soldiers in the be you. These moves are not need to john hes been taught how to carry them out for the past two years since he was fifteen he didnt learn the drills willingly johns one of at least seven hundred children forcibly recruited by the south sudans National Liberation movement that is where theyre going to be. To do the place for those who want to go home or the day he seemed to want to move in date say if you want to fly on new do yet again baseless. The civil war and south sudan now into its fifth year has killed thousands and displaced millions many vulnerable kids were recruited by armed groups to fight both boys and girls such as thirteen year old sarah. I was who lived in two angles to this people and only one started to dont think i would do anything wrong and mine and i still dont know this its me and it is put on to do no good and said to. Mr raymond. Right groups they nearly all armed groups to crew to children to fight the south sudans National Liberation movement has recently released more than three hundred children but that they were not really forced but to their condition abandon first today and now all of us to get out to state so in fact we did not dent over the years that they may be a needed me to fight does well you see we have decided also as we are now in tones of that the best sort of we decided to release them so that they can go to school. Communities. Nearly two thousand children have been demobilization the past five years but they are being replaced according to unicef the number of tell soldiers in armed groups and on forces has been on the rise since the war in december to fifteen that despite all were inside agreeing to stop recruiting tough soldiers and releasing those already enlisted but even for those who have been demobilized life is a challenge. Many children whove been released have no idea where their families are for others fighting has become a way of life that the biggest challenge is reintegration its a process that takes time to do three years for that child to go back home and resettle we still have more kids to be released so access big thing that we need more kids to be released all real concern is the reintegration of these children so that they dont get recruited again john and sara say they dont want to return to the battlefield but they also feel what lies ahead after their past experiences and wonder if they may be forced to fight again he will mourn aljazeera young south sudan. Lets bring in our guests joining us on skype from sierra leones capital freetown ishmael all for it charles a former child soldier who now works as a Program Manager at Healy International Relief Foundation in london Rachel Taylor director of programs at the u. K. Based in geo Child Soldiers International and from south sudans capital juba brigadier general. Spokesman for the south Sudanese Army welcome to you all charles we talk a lot in this program about the horrors of war but you experience it as a child first hand you were fourteen when you were force of become a child soldier in sierra leone could you tell our viewers about what happened to you. Well it was in a village called ok you know what i mean i cannot distribute the diamond. District of stereo where we were in a bush when i was recording recouping. Will always find this book that is going into the air thats the way to actually identify where people are actually residing and so the way they were to trace into the bush and then be out. In the bush and the rest and all of us and took us to the township of mine in such a different kind of districts and so i was very aware and strict and. Teaching us how it should go and also asks it to look to look carry it i tips so its it was a whole process which does not want to convey i want to begin summary because of our work we can give you but its a long process of induction on and end up judicially until i actually bite into guy challenges and also understand class courses and how to maneuver it is it comes as where Government Forces all the. Is there ever was a fighting force that was actually supported governments are doing science. Instead indicated there are bus accidents so it was a whole process where. I didnt want to be part of them on force so i was always looking for rooms of the chewed is so xscape but also have been condescend to the fact that if youre caught why do you try mixtape you are actually going to kill the media because they would see you as a spy rachel this is all very complicated subject matter i want to try to break this down a bit for the viewer could you tell us what are the primary causes of children being used by armed groups in times of conflict and war. I think the use of children by armed groups and even by state armed forces has a very long history and although the types of conflicts with seeing nowadays have developed somewhat over the previous century the reasons why children and young people become involved in these groups have remained fairly constant primarily its due to lack of access to resources to education to security primarily to food to employment and in contexts where young people see no other provider of these kinds of things they often find that they have no other option except to join the unscrupulous so although there are a great many children who are compelled to a forced or ducted and join on groups that are that way its really important to remember that for a lot of young people its not that they have been forced in that manner that theyve been kidnapped and forced to fight but that they have just simply have no other options and thats an area where we need to focus more resources as a preventive measure general kwang when were talking about child soldiers south sudan of course is a flashpoint now last week there was a report issued by Human Rights Watch that found that commanders from both Government Forces and rebel groups have been abducting detaining and forcing children some of them as young as thirteen into their ranks since the warring parties signed the agreement on the resolution of the conflict in south sudan in august two thousand and fifteen what is your response to those allegations. One is that we do not. To be recruited into our none files where it happens and it comes to our notice we take a sweeping action the only two cases i know of where he just didnt inform a unity state in twenty sixteen where it came to our tension that we had some shot sort of the runs on fire and when a committee was sent we were able to guess the sixteen. And that number and the lease was submitted to a unit safe and not the populace for demobilization and we since waited for the process to be to be completed however we also had cases of shells so it is that group that by groups that were eventually integrated into and one particular good example is. The presence of dias with. Affection. But a group that was absolved. Some years back we know that they heard about that ended. The process of integrating them into the army the cover of action is in the process and we we have said that they. Did that must be demobilized so it is not wide spread on the side of this barely we have heard limited cases and those cases appear adjusted with that of an authorities charles you now work with trying to help former child soldiers could you tell us about what kind of trauma theyve experienced and what is the rehabilitation process like for them. Well you know our citizens its very difficult in a very difficult situation because. Like you know as it is the former chancellor design actually have very limited coping mechanisms hence because during the conflict in days what they what weve been in to endure to its own standards used to sometimes doesnt square it and you can just use a gun and whatever you have so i actually gets whats you want irrespective of who are watching the most thats progress all the food and so thats actually a very sad situation because it insists in a real times in the times like now it doesnt happen that way because its no more in a tone justice as we used to call it its now a real just the situation is now on a democratic and it democratize that where peace who doesnt have to respect all the people so part of the programs that we do is to enable young people for which i was just in the arrow to have to go back to school and become selfreliant and to trade in program to train for us to train in progress of the devil and also do a lot of psycho social support which is the biggest of what we do because were find out that many of our colleagues young people have been dishonest but then my system not to stop even do we need to speak date attention to nation and them on how to reach to one to do things still very low way to very strong in parts of psycho social issues thats actually that is leaving weve done the regular basis so of our program as a cause for sas mythology where we use those who are charged to resident who are not and its where we can be able to see exactly. What it challenges out and also we also are full to the parents and those who are actually going to fall into and marry and have kids were also starting to skids and see how theyre transpiring alexandras from one generation to our all and thats why the project is called inside generation of the impact of the wall. Charles thanks for joining us today we really appreciate your time rachael the u. N. And other aid groups have said that progress is being made in the efforts to stamp out child soldiers the use of children in conflicts but its not happening fast enough could you tell us who are the worst offenders around the world and how is the effort to end child soldiers going. Child soldiers are used in conflicts around the world and they always have been there isnt really a specific region where you would say its worse than another its a similar case where the conflicts are happening so at the moment we see a huge amount of conflict in the middle east so there are many child soldiers there are many chancellors across africa in conflicts happening there in the past there were more in south america in colombia for example before the end of the conflict so its not something where theres really there isnt a culture where this is something that happens particularly there isnt a particular conflict its just where the violence is where children are they will inevitably be drawn into some extent or another so weve seen a lot of progress in the sense of standards setting. Through states ratifying the optional protocol against the use of child soldiers. Through other developments have come to say school speculation to protect children in conflict the parents principals vancouver principals so theres a lot of a parent will political will at that level to address this issue but what were seeing is a failure for that to implement on the ground. And put simply if you are in a conflict situation where communities structures where governmental structures are so damaged and or and so incapable of functioning properly its very very difficult to prevent young people from being drawn into that and we talk about it as if children were recruited as a set moment and that they were demobilized that theyre released and its these are finite things which happen on a done but thats not the way it works in reality theres a long process of being drawn in that can be a long process of coming out again that can be a lot of going back and forth you have to look at the situations that children are being reintegrated into if youre in a conflict situation where there is no education no employment no safety for your family no access to food you cant really talk about children being reintegrated into society because there isnt a functioning society to go back to. And thats why we continue to see the problem persisting as much as it has despite the efforts that have been made to stop it because the conflicts themselves are continuing and often they are increasingly involving an element of total Community Involvement we dont have conflicts the way we did one hundred years ago where there would be very distinct separate military forces battling it out on a battlefield today what we see is something which is much more pervasive that affects entire countries communities areas so trying to draw children out is very very difficult lets now bring in another former child soldier ishmael baer joins us from a buddha israel was a child soldier in sierra leone now ishmael tell us about the kind of advocacy youre involved in to help the thousands of children still trapped in wars how do you go about raising awareness. Well what i try to do and what i did my first book that i wrote was to try and put a human face to the story because often i think when people speak about children in Armed Conflict particularly in areas where this is not an issue it seems so far removed from the realities of peoples lives so what i wanted to write about was to put first or put a human face to sure that this is happening to the most vulnerable members of Human Society in addition and that these young people can come back again they have the resilient but at the right care with the right support of course with a range of Ration Program that is solid that actually looks at the holistic aspects of how to reach or somebodys back into normalcy and give them an opportunity that people can come back one of those examples and so odd is around the world general cohen critics have charged that most of the militias that have been integrated into the south Sudanese Army have child soldiers in their ranks so what do you do to ensure that those child soldiers dont continue as members once theyve been integrated into the south Sudanese Army so we make sure that. Integrated into. All of the. Sun files are just that our Child Protection department is not to fight ones that i guess that we also inform. And thats why were able to demobilize over three hundred former child soldiers in. The group that was keeping them in the army on trial was integrated into this fairly and this has been our policy whenever the rebel group is integrated into we make sure that it is do not find their ways into this pallet on certain files and we have done we have been doing it consistently to ensure that that problem does not to spill over to the National Army theres barely we are presenting rachel another aspect to all this is that the exploitation of girls is also becoming disturbingly common. Form groups could you tell us more about that specifically so the use of go so inches by armed forces by armed groups is also something which has on foot in a very long history its only relatively recently that the International Community has begun to recognise to what extent goals are involved in conflict in the stereotypical image of a child soldier is a boy but in fact girls in some areas are around the halls of the children involved all research in the r. C. Has shown that around forty percent of the children involved in armed groups that are ago understand that the use of child human bombs that you mentioned earlier by boko haram sixty six percent of those were girls so girls are very much a part of these groups they perform a range of functions many people are aware of the abduction of girls or the compulsion of goes for use as sex slaves or as socalled brides but their roles extend far beyond that they can be involved in fighting in. Providing. Support whether thats carrying goods and weapons or as charles mentioned earlier loosing they cover a very wide range of roles as well just like boys do then when it comes to reintegration girls have very specific problems partly because they have been overlooked for so long so for example our research in the o. C. Showed that despite the fact that around forty percent of children in armed groups were goals only seven percent of those whod been demobilized by the un had to go so there was a very large percentage of girls who were going missing somewhere in the process. And theres also often a case with reintegration that theres too much focus on short term practical measures like training for particular career whether thats a seamstress or headdress or whatever else and our Research Found that this was not meeting the goals needs no. I was listening to what it was they were saying that they needed in order to reintegrate successfully and what that came down to in the great majority of cases was going on saying simply we need to feel accepted at home we need the community to welcome us back in. Were ostracized were seen as tainted were seen as having lost our social value as a result of having been involved with these armed groups particularly goals who came back with babies or who were pregnant when they return so weve been implementing programs there to focus much more on the social the personal the cultural aspect of reintegration so that children can go back to a community and be welcomed as the person as individual that they are then so these communities and regions already under girls with education and employment sorry to interrupt but i just want to pick up on something you said and ask ishmael because were talking about programs to help really severe amounts of trauma and i want to ask ishmael about the kind of trauma that is faced by child soldiers especially as theyre trying to reintegrate into society and what specifically can be done to help them through this. Well i think that there are Different Things that have been done on the psychological aspects in terms of programs in sex or ship therapy and all of these things i believe that over the years people have learned how to do it well well i believe based on my experience and also on the work that i do with that with unicef and going to some of these environments what ive seen that needs a lot of walk its still opportunities that are created for young people after war. There hasnt been very much really there are Market Research to really think about how do we give people realize that change is their lives so that theyre able to be economically dependent on their own skill sets to be able to do something with their lives often when these things to walk what happens is that the young person and of going back into the conflict because they feel that theyre not useful to themselves or to their community and in additionally the communities are not involved in some of this is done and some will have to think about what it is that we can do for a child after well for example in my case when i came out of war if i hadnt had the opportunity to really go to school and discover that i had an intelligence that i can use for something or other than the values of that come to know i probably would have embraced the violence again as as an alternative and so thats really where i believe the key issue lies their long term think in a real thinking about what do we do for young people when they come out of a what not just to tell them to be a mechanic be a plumber if they want to do that and if theres actually an Economic Opportunity for that yes but less than just give them a skill set that bill it was the intelligence as well you know and i think this is where the issue lies its briefly i want to ask you about numbers specifically a recent report said that International Aid provided by governments and International Bodies topped one hundred seventy four billion dollars in two thousand and fifteen but less than one percent of that was spent on projects fully or partially partially designed to end violence against children why do you think that is. Well im not sure what the reason of their notion of the funds that dispersed in germs of where how the push to certain programs but again what i was saying earlier is that i dont think theres a long term thinking of vision of the i dont think in the rehabilitation its seven reintegration theres not a preventive measure been prescribed to reduce programs to make sure that communities in the environment where these young people are did not continue to have violence so in that itself young people are going to try to come back you know i think people are interested but i think oftentimes the way people are focusing on the issue its not correct for example i live in nigeria now where people talk about a book or on one of the terms of people throw around is derided. I think is often quite wrong i dont think you can see people who find themselves in conflict in prison or radicalized just by the nature of being there you know i think its a wrong approach to think about it even in that way you know i think cycles psychological trauma from boys not radicalisation often people go to war because this situation is already were solved before they get compromised by that by woodward you know so yeah ok well have to end it there thanks to all our guests ishmael bat Rachel Taylor and brigadier general. And thank you too for watching you can see the program any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. Inside story from home in the entire team here bye for now. I am doing this on the benefit of people who. Saw a man they see named paul going to ask eyes. 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