Child soldiers being bought and trained by islamist terrorist groups
Child soldiers can be bought from families for as little as £375 sterling by Islamist groups including AQMI in northern Mali using money from ransoms and drug trafficking while imposing Sharia law, says a senior UN official.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Child-soldiers-...
They are also buying child soldiers, paying families $600 (£375) per child, Ivan Simonovic said after a fact-finding visit to the country.Islamic extremists seized two-thirds of Mali in March when a military coup plunged the country into chaos.
Women's rights were being particularly restricted, said Mr Simonovic, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, citing the compilation of a "frightening" list of unmarried women who were pregnant or had borne children.More women were being forced into marriage - with a wife costing less than $1,000 - and some were then being resold in "a smokescreen for enforced prostitution", added Mr Simonovic.
"Human rights violations are becoming more systematic," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, adding that Islamists had "imposed an extremist version of Sharia".So far, he said, there had been three public executions, eight amputations and two floggings.,reported the BBC.
An earlier report by Associated Press at the end of September said that Islamists have plucked and paid for as many as 1,000 children from rural towns and villages devastated by poverty and hunger.
The U.N. children's agency said it has been able to corroborate at least 175 reported cases of child soldiers in northern Mali this year, with parents receiving between 500,000 francs (about $1,000) and 600,000 francs (about $1,200) per child. However, Mali's human rights commission branch in Timbuktu said some families have reportedly received as much as 1 million francs ($2,000), AP reported..
Mali human rights officials also put the total number of children recruited by the Islamists considerably higher than U.N. estimates at 1,000, based on accounts from the major cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. Officials said at least 200 child soldiers are operating in Mali's fabled town of Timbuktu alone.
"The Islamists are distributing money and food to their parents, so the children have no choice," said El Boukhari Ben Essayouti, Secretary-General with the Malian Human Rights Association in Timbuktu. "It is poverty and misery that are pushing these children toward them."
The children stay at camps with the militants on the outskirts of towns. Sadou Diallo, the mayor of the town of Gao, said members of al-Qaida's North Africa branch, known as AQIM, are giving them military training and religious indoctrination.One young Malian who underwent training at a camp run by Ansar Dine confirmed that his instructors were Algerian members of AQIM, according to AP.
Women's rights were being particularly restricted, said Mr Simonovic, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, citing the compilation of a "frightening" list of unmarried women who were pregnant or had borne children.More women were being forced into marriage - with a wife costing less than $1,000 - and some were then being resold in "a smokescreen for enforced prostitution", added Mr Simonovic.
"Human rights violations are becoming more systematic," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, adding that Islamists had "imposed an extremist version of Sharia".So far, he said, there had been three public executions, eight amputations and two floggings.,reported the BBC.
An earlier report by Associated Press at the end of September said that Islamists have plucked and paid for as many as 1,000 children from rural towns and villages devastated by poverty and hunger.
The U.N. children's agency said it has been able to corroborate at least 175 reported cases of child soldiers in northern Mali this year, with parents receiving between 500,000 francs (about $1,000) and 600,000 francs (about $1,200) per child. However, Mali's human rights commission branch in Timbuktu said some families have reportedly received as much as 1 million francs ($2,000), AP reported..
Mali human rights officials also put the total number of children recruited by the Islamists considerably higher than U.N. estimates at 1,000, based on accounts from the major cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. Officials said at least 200 child soldiers are operating in Mali's fabled town of Timbuktu alone.
"The Islamists are distributing money and food to their parents, so the children have no choice," said El Boukhari Ben Essayouti, Secretary-General with the Malian Human Rights Association in Timbuktu. "It is poverty and misery that are pushing these children toward them."
The children stay at camps with the militants on the outskirts of towns. Sadou Diallo, the mayor of the town of Gao, said members of al-Qaida's North Africa branch, known as AQIM, are giving them military training and religious indoctrination.One young Malian who underwent training at a camp run by Ansar Dine confirmed that his instructors were Algerian members of AQIM, according to AP.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Child-soldiers-...