Female Child Soldiers

(PANA) - The African Union (AU) has commissioned a fresh study on the involvement of female child soldiers and their roles in conflicts that have ravaged Africa over the past decade, including the Rwanda genocide, an AU official said.

The Pan African body is seeking to study the relationship between male child soldiers and their female counterparts, with regard to their role-play in the conflicts, as a means of addressing the issue through effective policy recommendations, the official said.

"The boys and the girls are both child soldiers. The girls play a role in the conflict whether they go to the front lines or are left at home to prepare food for the fighters," said Litha Musyimi-Ogana, Director of AU’s Gender Development Directorate.

"They (females) are also spouses of the child soldiers," she told PANA in an interview ahead of a major conference here to discuss the plight of women in the Darfur conflict.

The Fammes Africa Solidarity (FAS) is hosting talks on the plight of women caught up in the Darfur conflict, ahead of this year’s African heads of state assembly.

Musyimi-Ogana said the AU was impressed with African countries progress in the implementation of the 2004 solemn declaration of gender equality, which has seen several states implement ground-breaking initiatives to reduce the impact of disease and conflict on women.

"We have seen the continent bring down the number of conflicts to zero since 1998 when we had almost 16 conflicts. What is remaining is peace building and the continent has acknowledged the role of women in peace building," she told PANA here Wednesday.

"We need an African solution to the crisis and women have proved to be the best in post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. They have shown their capability in reconciling neighbours and re-building schools destroyed in conflict," the AU official explained.

The AU has been impressed with progress and initiatives made in Rwanda to address the plight of female child soldiers in the post-conflict conflict era, including the government’s assistance to their children.

Musyimi-Ogana said initiatives such as those implemented in Rwanda, among other gender-specific interventions to lessen the burden of HIV/AIDS through the provision of free life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to women, were good signs from Africa.

"We had 16 conflicts in Africa when women decided to get involved in peace. We formed peace networks and by 2005, we had only two conflicts left," she noted.

African leaders endorsed the 13-point solemn declaration of gender parity in 2004, based on principles agreed upon during the Beijing platform in the late 1990s.

Since then, most African states have paid attention to the crippling crises hindering women development.

"We have to be methodical in the way we implement the (Solemn) Declaration. Many states have adopted the Declaration and are doing a lot, we just need to see more to appreciate," she added.

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