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On Monday, Leila Zerrougui, top UN envoy on children and armed conflict, said that the Islamic State (IS) have killed hundreds of children in summary executions, and have even used some in suicide bomb attacks.
“Up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, including in summary executions”, Zerrougui told the UN Security Council.
She also said that the IS were recruiting boys from the ages of 13 to carry weapons, arrest civilians and guard strategic locations.
“Other children are used as suicide bombers”, she added.
She also said that militias allied with the Iraqi government were also using children to battle the extremists, and that “numerous children” that were detained by the federal government went missing after militias had stormed prisons in July.
Last month, the UN Security Council had adopted a resolution that sought to stop funding and inflow of foreign fighters to the extremists, and warned that the atrocities they’ve committed may be categorized as crimes against humanity. On Monday, the council was discussing child soldiers, primarily in Libya, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Mali and Afghanistan, where children are forced into warzones after being recruited as foot soldiers.
Around 8,000 children have been enlisted in the Central African Republic to fight for various armed groups, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the Security Council. The council also heard an appeal for reintegration from actor Forest Whitaker, a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO.
“How alone these children must feel when they return from the battlefield to a world they do not recognize. Unless we are there to meet them with open arms, open homes, and open schools, their wars will never end. And neither will ours”, the American actor with an active foundation in South Sudan said.
A “Children, Not Soldiers” was launched earlier this year by the UN, with the goal of making sure that no child in the world is a part of any government’s armed force by 2016.