UN: Somalia’s new PM vows to end child recruitment into army

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

November 4, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Somalia’s new Prime Minister has pledged to end the practice of recruitment of child soldiers in to the country’s armed forces, said a UN envoy, who met with the new premier on Tuesday in a visit to Mogadishu.

Speaking after the trip from Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN’s special representative for children in armed conflict, on Wednesday said that Somali Prime minister, Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo, gave her his word that his incoming government will commit to release and rehabilitate child soldiers.

“The Prime Minister’s commitment to end the recruitment of child soldiers in Somalia is a welcome first step, as is his agreement to the process of putting together measures that will prevent children from being recruited to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG),” Coomaraswamy told the press.

She stressed that the TFG, including its allied militias, has been on the “name and shame” list of the Secretary-General for recruiting and using children for five consecutive years and is persistent violator.

Although some human rights groups report on presences of broad recruiting to child soldiers in the country there however is little agreement on their number.

Thousands of Somali children are estimated to have been recruited by both the weak – UN-backed government – and the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabab, which is believed to have links with Al-Qaida.

The UN envoy hoped that commitment by the Prime Minister’s incoming government will eventually reveal the extent of the problem.

“There’s been a rapid increase in the recruitment of child soldiers,” Coomaraswamy told journalists.

“Unfortunately, my office has no access to Al Shabaab or Hizbul Islam which are listed by the Secretary-General for recruiting child soldiers. But we hope that they will abide by international humanitarian law and release all children within their ranks.”

The UN envoy urged states that have influence over all parties in the region to ensure that all parties in Somalia protect the rights of children.

“In Somalia, girls and boys are still on the many front lines as they have been for twenty years and it’s only getting worse. Increasingly, it is children who are fighting the war. The actors may change, battlefields may shift, but it is always the children who suffer,” said the Special Representative.

Somalia which has been torn apart by decades of conflict has not had a functioning central government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The UN says the country is also facing grave a humanitarian crisis. Figures indicate that some 3.2 million people, more than 40 per cent of the population, is in need of aid.

Currently, there are 7,000 African Union peacekeeping troops deployed in the country protecting the Somali government from Islamist insurgents fighting to topple the current rule in power.

Urged by the UN to dedicate to strive for unity and combat the long standing instability challenges facing the war-torn horn nation, the newly elected Prime Minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, is expected to announce his new government soon.

(ST)