UNICEF is working with the Government of Chad on a regional conference focussing on the recruitment and use of children in armed forces and groups.

The conference – to take place 7-9 June in N’Djamena, Chad – will seek international commitments on ending the use of child soldiers and better provision for their re-integration and care.

Decades of conflict in Chad have left children vulnerable to recruitment by armed forces and rebel groups. There are an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 child soldiers in the country.

In accordance with the Paris Principles, under-age recruits enter a UNICEF-sponsored rehabilitation process when members of Chadian rebel groups are captured, or when the groups sign peace deals with the government. The authorities also pay about $830 to each rebel fighter who demobilizes.

Demobilized youths are brought to interim care centres in N’Djamena that are run by the non-governmental organization CARE International. At the centres, they receive psychological counselling and learn skills to help them reintegrate into society.
Since 2007 more than 800 children have gone through this UNICEF-supported process.

Individual toll

For Dowa Samna, 19, working at a garage in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, is a far cry from his former life in the armed forces. The former child soldier recalls that conditions in the military were rough. “We did not eat regular meals,” he says, “and we had to share everything.”

Dowa joined the Chadian National Army when he was 16 but was demobilized a year later when the authorities discovered his true age. “We were so relieved when Dowa came home. We were so afraid he would never come back,” says his father, Gong-na Samna.

Another former child soldier, Souleymane Adoum Izak, 19, spent seven years fighting with a rebel group in eastern Chad. In 2007, when the group negotiated a peace deal with the government, Souleymane laid down his arms and transferred to a rehabilitation centre. He now works at a hotel in N’Djamena.

Getting used to life without a gun is a challenge for many former child soldiers.

“These children have actually been trained to kill,” says UNICEF Representative in Chad Dr. Marzio Babille. “It’s very difficult to overcome the psycho-social aspect of this trauma and get them back to a normal life.”

Like Dowa and many others in similar circumstances, Souleymane has a new lease of life due in large part to the work of UNICEF and its partners.