This map represents the recruitment and use of child soldiers in Africa between 1970 and 2022. The colour gradient illustrates the number of years in that period that each country has been evidenced to have recruited and used children in state and non-state armed groups according to humanitarian reports and and advocacy sources (listed below). In building this dataset, we encountered various methodological challenges: namely the paucity of historic data and wide ranging numerical claims across different sources. This representation of the collated data captures the duration of time in which child soldiers have been used over the past fifty years, reflecting sustained presence rather than numerical intensity. In mapping other variables, we can begin to unpack the patterns in child recruitment at different times in history, from decolonization and Cold War recruitment to the ‘new wars’ after 1990. Although the difficulty in verifying allegations of child recruitment means this dataset is by no means exhaustive, it is a valuable source through which to reflect on historical trends, identify transnational relationships between armed groups, and understand the evolution of a systematic humanitarian monitoring system since the establishment of the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict in 2002.
As this project progresses, one of our core aims is to add depth and dimension to the participation of children in armed groups since 1940. This map will evolve with our work, so please check this page again shortly to see the development of a longitudinal analysis of child soldering in Africa.
Data Sources
‘Children of War: a newsletter on Child Soldiers from Radda Barnen’ (1996 – 1998) <https://web.archive.org/web/19970102033609/http://www.rb.se/chilwar/fem_96/cw53.htm>
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, ‘Child Soldiers Global Report 2004’, <Child Soldiers: Global Report 2004 – World | ReliefWeb>
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (Switzerland), The use of children as soldiers in Africa: a country analysis of child recruitment and participation in armed conflict (UNESCO digital library, 1999)
Secretary-General Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (2002 – 2023)
Swarthmore College Peace Archives, Dorothea E. Woods Collection, SCPC DG 213 series.
Rachel Brett and Margaret McCallin, Children: The Invisible Soldiers (Radda Barnen, 1996)
Vera Achvarina and Simon F. Reich, ‘No Place to Hide: Refugees, Displaced Persons, and the Recruitment of Child Soldiers’, International Security, 31, 1 (2006); 127-164