Reconciliation efforts in countries where children have been press-ganged into fighting wars need to pay more attention to the severe trauma suffered by many of these combatants, German researchers said on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates about 250 000 children worldwide are currently fighting in wars -- mostly in Africa -- but very little research has gone into the effects of such violence on the mental health of young combatants, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.