War and Peace

Angola

How many young girls were used by Angola s warring parties during its 27-year war is anyone s guess. Denial by both sides and fear of discrimination and stigma among former girl soldiers continue to stand in the way of any effort to come up with precise figures.

Both the government and the former rebel group, UNITA, have in the past denied recruiting child soldiers. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed that minors were widely used by both sides during the conflict. The exact number remains a contentious issue, but conservative estimates put the number of children who bore arms for UNITA at 6,000. HRW has noted that the actual figure was probably much higher.

The refusal to acknowledge the role played by child soldiers, especially girls, during Angola's hostilities has complicated efforts by aid groups to address the problem.

Christian Children's Fund (CCF) in Angola is one of the few NGOs that have attempted to tackle the needs of children who participated in the war, but it says it has had to broaden the scope of its project to include all children, not only child soldiers.

The CCF director in Angola, Vivi Stavrou, said: "Our programmes targeting children in Angola have a broad focus. We are interested in the impact war has had on all children, especially since the majority of children have in some way or the other been victims of civil war. We would hope that within these programmes the needs of so-called 'child soldiers' will be identified and addressed."

HRW uses the definition of a child soldier adopted at a UN Children's Fund-backed international symposium in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1997. According to that definition, a child soldier is "any person under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to, cooks,

porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members".

While research into boy soldiers has received attention, very little has been reported on the plight of girls, who were often used by UNITA as cooks, domestics, and porters.

There have also been reports that women and girls were given to UNITA commanders and visitors and forced into sexual relations. Other girls were forced into marriages with UNITA combatants. HRW contends that refusals were met with punishment, and attempts to escape often meant death. (Source: IRIN)

Burundi

Francois Bivugire, 16, was on his way home from school when his own cousins abducted him. Within minutes the sixth-year primary school pupil had become a rebel recruit trudging through the bush alongside other frightened conscripts from his village in central Burundi.

They went through much hardship as they received military training in Kibira Forest in the west of the country, but what remains imprinted most strongly in his mind is having to spend two months without a shower and without seeing or feeling the heat of the sun, hidden by the thick canopy of the forest. We were shivering the whole night and day as the sun could not pass through, Francois said..

The lack of sunlight also left him with a skin disease from which he was still suffering months after he left the rebel group. He escaped two months after his abduction, but only spent one week at home before he was forced back into the rebel ranks. This time, they threatened to kill him if he ever tried to desert again, but that did not deter him and in July, he slipped away again as the rebels prepared to attack the capital, Bujumbura.

Now Francois dreams only of going back to school. However, going back home is out of the question, he says, because the last thing he wants is to be abducted again. In the meantime, he gets help from an NGO that normally assists street children.

Thousands of children face an uncertain future after serving in Burundi s armed groups. Some were forced to join up. Others volunteered because they felt they had no choice. Francois is one of many who signed up for rehabilitation. A number of others are still with the rebel factions or the government army. (Source:IRIN)

Cote d Ivoire

Twelve gunmen, wearing black T-shirts, were killed in Abidjan on December 11night in a gun battle that followed an attack on the main military barracks, national television reported.

Another five gunmen were believed to have been killed in a separate attack on a transmission station for the government RTI television in the western Abidjan suburb of Abobo, military sources said.

All the dead men had the words "Brigade Nindja" written on their black T-shirts, the military sources said.

"Brigade Nindja" is the name of one of the pro-government militias in Abidjan, who were allegedly trained and armed by the government after mutinous soldiers attempted to stage a coup d'etat on 19 September.

A senior Ivorian army officer, who did not want to be named, said an investigation had been launched. It is suspected, he added, that the attacks were an infiltration by the rebellious soldiers who, since the coup attempt, have remained in control of the north of the country.

"The bodies will be examined one by one to determine who these people are. It is very strange and unlikely that pro-government militias could attack an army barracks," the officer said. (Source: IRIN)

Eritrea-Ethiopia

A special envoy is to be appointed to help intensify efforts to resolve the stalled peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the United Nations said on December 11.

George Somerwill, deputy spokesman for the UN Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE), said the envoy would add weight to ongoing diplomatic moves to keep the three-year-old peace deal on track.

The appointment of a special envoy is an intensification of the UN and international community s efforts to bring the Algiers [peace] Agreement to a satisfactory conclusion, he said.

Somerwill declined to comment on who may be appointed and when.

Speculation, both in the Ethiopian media and abroad, is mounting that former Canadian foreign minister Dr Lloyd Axworthy will be appointed to the role.

Axworthy, a former nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, is best known for his role in pushing through a global treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines.

Demarcation of the contested border between Ethiopia and Eritrea where a bloody two-year war was fought has stalled amid wrangling over the contested border town Badme. (Source: IRIN)