In an article released to day by the UN, a reported 7,622 children were found fighting in armed conflicts across Africa and the Middle East in 2022. Some of these children were as young as 9 years of age. Most were abducted from their families, given drugs, or threaten with physical harm if they did not fight. And this is 28 years after the Children and Armed Conflict Mandate developed the United Nations demanding children be released from the ranks. 

Five countries continue to violate the Children and Armed Conflict Mandate by continuing to recruit children. They use the children as frontline soldiers, spies, support staff, and human shields. Whatever roles these children fulfill, they still bear the trauma of war for a lifetime. 

To read more about this subject, please consider: Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. 

Living in Sierra Leone, Ishmael Beah was a typical 13 year old boy, who enjoyed American movies and rap. He attended school and played with his friends Junior and Talloi. In the opening pages, they are visiting another village when they learn their own has been attacked. Trying to reunite with family members, they return to the village, but they have to flee attacking rebels. They spend days lost in the jungle until they are eventually picked up by the Sierra Leone Army. 

The army forces the boys to carry weapons and fight the rebels. They provide their young soldiers with Brown Brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder. Beah fights for three years, witnessing the deaths of family and friends. Finally, Beah’s commanding officer takes mercy on him and allows a UNICEF group to take Beah to a rehab center for children like himself. This act of mercy leaves Beah confused as to why he was chosen. 

At the rehab center, Beah was resistant to the program until Esther is able to connect with him. Assuring him that he is not damaged beyond repair, Esther is able to connect Beah with relatives living in Freetown. Through Esther and his family, Beah is able to regain his humanity. He is able to travel to New York and speak on behalf of all the children of Sierra Leone to the United Nations.

Beah’s story is devastating, but beautiful as you realize that anything is possible through love and care. Please consider his story on this day.