WORLD NEWS
February 28, 2001
Child Soldiers Set Free
An African rebel army has freed more than 2,600 kids in Sudan
 Sudanese boys set off for their new home away from the battlefield. |
Deng Ghol was just six years old when he was forced to live with a rebel army in Sudan, Africa after his father was killed and his mother kidnapped. Seven years later, Ghol has been set free and is about to make the transition from battlefield soldier to classroom student.
"I am very happy I am going to have an education. I hope it will help me trace my abducted mother," Ghol said. He is one of more than 2,600 boys between the ages of eight and 18 who have been set free and handed over to the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF is busy moving kids away from battle zones and returning them to their families.
 |  Child soldiers of the rebel Sudanese army get ready to give up their guns. |
Kids on the Battlefield
Every day all over the world, children are being used as soldiers. Some carry rifles when they are as young as eight years old. Even though 2,600 child soldiers have just been set free in Sudan, as many as 300,000 more remain in parts of Africa and south Asia.
"If you look here, you will see children in uniform, children who know how to drill, children who are not afraid of handling guns. This is an army; this is no place for a child," said Martin Dawes, a UNICEF spokesman.
Settling Back Into Life
Sudan's main rebel army released the boy soldiers as part of a promise it made to UNICEF last year. The southern rebel army has fought government soldiers in a civil war in the north African country since 1983. UNICEF is now at work trying to help the kid soldiers readjust to society. For some of them, that means reuniting with their families. Others are orphans and need homes. Former soldiers also need schooling and counseling.
"I am happy today, and if my parents were alive, they would be happy to see me getting an education," said Paulina Kwol, a 15-year-old who has fought with the rebel army since he was 10. Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, said the U.N. will continue working until there are no more child soldiers left in the world. "Only a global movement can make this stop," she said.
