UN ENVOY REPORTS NO EVIDENCE OF 'CHILD SOLDIERING' IN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA
May 12, 2011 ·
A top United Nations expert on the impact of armed conflict on children said that during a recent visit to Eritrea and Ethiopia he had seen no systematic use of child soldiers and found no evidence of child abuse in refugee camps. Olara Otunnu, Secretary-General’s Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said that the absence of the “child soldiering” phenomenon was particularly impressive since no other conflict zone he had visited recently had been free of the problem. Mr. Otunnu attributed the fact that there was no military recruitment of children and no evidence of abuse in camps to the control exercised by the local authorities and communities. (UN Release)
