Developments in Afghanistan
A growing concern is the marked increase of attacks against schools, attributed mainly to insurgents, including Taliban militias and other armed groups, which has spread from the south and south-eastern regions to all the provinces. Since late 2005, incidents have included the burning or bombing of schools, the assassination of principals, teachers and officials and threats to students. These attacks have led to the closure of all schools in six districts and the closure of a substantive number of schools in 10 other districts of the southern region. From January to July 2006, over 100 violent incidents against schools, teachers or pupils were recorded, compared with 60 during the whole of 2005; and 105,000 children in the southern region were reported to be denied access to education because of insecurity. It is also reported that ideological opposition to the education of girls appears to motivate some of these attacks.
In the southern region, including Panjwai district and the Hilmand province, civilians are increasingly falling victim to an upsurge in fighting between Taliban insurgents and Government and United States-led Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan. A particularly egregious incident on 11 April 2006 resulted in the death of six children and the wounding of 14 other people when a rocket fired by Taliban elements exploded in the Salabagh School in Asadabad, Kunar. On 22 May 2006, the aerial bombardment by the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan of a residential area of Taloqan village in Panjwai district, where alleged Taliban were presumed to be in hiding resulted in the deaths of approximately 35 civilians, including at least 9 confirmed children. Children have also been injured in incidents involving suicide bombers targeting foreign military forces.
In parallel to the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme, a United Nations-backed disarmament, demobilization and reintegration initiative, a child-specific demobilization and reintegration programme, is led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). As of July 2006, a total of 7,444 children associated with armed groups and affected by armed conflict had benefited from various reintegration support activities in 34 provinces of the country since the start of the programme in February 2004. Despite this progress, there are still some children who remain associated with local commanders in rural areas of the north, north-east and central regions.
In Darfur, SAF, Janjaweed militias, the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minawi that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, other SLA factions that refused to sign the agreement, as well as paramilitary forces that are part of the Government, such as the camel police, are responsible for the recruitment and use of children. The Chadian opposition forces are also responsible for the recruitment and use of children. It is estimated that thousands of children are still associated with armed forces and groups in Darfur and were actively involved in the conflict between May and July 2006. The security situation, access limitations and the delayed implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement impede the ability to monitor the recruitment and use of children. Monitors have confirmed that the SLA (Minawi) commanders were forcibly recruiting boys in Gereida in May 2006, and that many child soldiers were also witnessed in Gereida at the end of June 2006. G19, a breakaway faction of SLA (Minawi), claimed in interviews at the beginning of June that SLA (Minawi) had abducted 108 children for use as soldiers on 10 May 2006. On 15 May 2006, interviews by United Nations staff of people displaced after Janjaweed attacks on villages near Kutum, Northern Darfur, confirmed that there were many armed child soldiers among the Janjaweed militiamen who attacked them; and in June 2006, in Western Darfur there were further reports of many boys less than 18 years of age recruited into the camel police, a group used to mediate and control disputes between pastoralists and farmers. On 24 May 2006, a 17-year-old Tama boy was abducted from Geneina, southern Sudan, by Chadian opposition forces. This is indicative of the ongoing problem of abduction of youth from the Tama ethnic group for recruitment to the Chadian opposition.
The recent success in the fight against impunity of recruitment of children unfortunately seems to have an adverse effect on the ability to identify children still present among various groups joining the demobilization process. There are messages circulating in South Kivu and Katanga that children used as combatants are left behind by commanders joining the brassage process because they fear accusations of recruitment of children.