Rhino: Agencies – The Darfur Lawyers Association condemned on Wednesday the recruitment of children by armed movements and called on UNICEF to take the necessary legal measures to prohibit and criminalize it.
In a statement on Wednesday, the association pointed out that the phenomenon of child recruitment by armed movements is widespread in the city of El Fasher, North Darfur.
A video circulating on social media showed children under the age of 18 riding in combat vehicles belonging to the armed movements in El Fasher.
The statement said: ‘The data of human rights and humanitarian organizations working in North Darfur showed a noticeable and alarming increase in the recruitment of children by armed movements, and the organizations called on the armed movements to immediately demobilize children in their ranks and stop recruiting children to fight with them.
The statement continued: ‘International law prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting anyone under the age of 18, and the recruitment of children under the age of 15 constitutes a war crime under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.