CHICAGO, Illinois — Angola is a country located in southwestern Africa. It is the largest and wealthiest of the Portuguese-speaking African countries, with a surface area of 1,246,700 km² and a population of 38.98 million. From the early uprising to 2002, Angola was plunged into nearly three decades of civil war opposing the FNLA, the MPLA, and UNITA for control of the country. During this war, child soldiers were involved, and children’s rights groups have recorded as many as 11,000 child soldiers in Angola in the last years of the fighting.
Child Soldiers
The definition that the international community largely uses and Human Rights Watch promotes, is known as the Cape Town definition which defines a child soldier as “any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members.” This definition also applies to girls recruited for sexual purposes or forced marriage. Besides, these children can be easily manipulated and drawn into violence that they cannot easily resist or understand. While some children are forcibly recruited in war zones, or because they are poor or have limited access to education, some others enlist themselves voluntarily as a means of survival in war-torn regions, after seeing government armed forces or rebel groups torture or kill their family.
The Angolan War: Historical Context
Like many colonized nations, Angola was fighting to gain its independence from Portuguese colonial rule. During the struggle for its independence, three main movements were formed and were fighting along with the people:
- The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), founded in December 1956, which had its support base among the Ambundu people. This nationalist movement was largely supported by the other African Nations and backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union.
- The National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), founded in 1962, had its support among the Bakongo people. This nationalist group was backed by the government of Zaire (initially) and the People’s Republic of China.
- The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), established in 1966 and founded by Jonas Savimbi, a prominent former leader of the FNLA, had its support among the Ovimbundu people. As a nationalist movement, it was also backed by the United States and South Africa.
When Portuguese colonial rule ended abruptly in its different colonies (Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe), after the overthrow of Prime Minister Marcello Caetano by the Armed Forces Movement (AFM), Angola gained its independence on November 11th. 1975.
Despite the hard-won independence of Angola, the power-sharing agreement between the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA collapsed for reasons of a combination of ethnic tensions, internal political rivalries, regional interests and international pressure in the context of the Cold War. Consequently, the competition of the Nationalist movements for political control of Angola has driven Angola into nearly three decades of war, with widespread violence, displacement, and humanitarian crisis from 1975 to 2002. The long-lasting war created an ecosystem where the use of child soldiers became a disastrous tactic among armed groups seeking to sustain combat.
The Use of Child Soldiers in Angola During the War
Child Soldiers were used by the different groups fighting for power control in Angola, despite the prohibition of the use of children in armed conflict by the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of a Child. The environment of chaos and instability facilitated the recruitment of children who lacked protective family structure or community support. The armed groups viewed children as low-cost fighters who could be easily coerced or convinced into violence. In many cases, children were abducted from their communities, stripping families of their sons and daughters.
The children serving under the UNITA command during the war were tasked with the dangerous duty of conveying messages to and from the front. While smaller children served as cooks, lookouts, domestic and food gatherers, the physically strong carried arms and fought battles. On the other hand, the girls who were involved with UNITA served as domestics, assistants, spies and wives to the soldiers. Women and girls were also given without their consent as ” comfort women ” to guests visiting UNITA-held areas. These boys and girls were severely punished when they ‘‘infracted” the rules and were also whipped by the soldiers.
The Angolan government also used child soldiers despite national legislation that prohibited their enlistment. Many were forcibly recruited to fight for the Angola Armed Forces FAA in government-held areas to strengthen military capacity during intense conflict. Child soldiers had hazardous duties such as collecting firewood and food in FAA-held areas, and some of them worked as radio operators and mechanical repairers.
The Militia groups and local warlords operating outside formal military structures also exploited child soldiers for personal and strategic gain.
The use of child soldiers has physical and psychological consequences for them. Psychologically, child soldiers experienced severe trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and lasting emotional scars. Physically, child soldiers endured injuries such as gunshot wounds, amputations and physical exhaustion from combat or torture. Thereby, these physical and psychological consequences of the war on child soldiers challenge their recovery and integration into society.
The End of the War and the Failing Reintegration of Child Soldiers
In April 2002, an agreement was reached between the government armed forces and the largest opposition group, the National Union for the Independence of Angola (UNITA), bringing peace to Angola after decades of war. Approximately 100,000 adult combatants from UNITA moved into quartering areas with their families. Most fighters eighteen and older received demobilization, photo identification cards, a travel authorization certificate, a five-month salary based on military rank, and food assistance. But boys and girl soldiers under 18 were not included in the demobilization process and only received an identification card and food aid distributed to family units attached to the soldiers. The demobilization program did not include many child soldiers who carried the same duties as adults during the conflict.
Children who were under the FAA had received no benefits as former fighters. They were rather placed with their families or relatives and lacked proper food or shelter, health care and educational opportunities.
Bridging the Gap of a Failing Process
Researchers met with FAA and former UNITA officers as well as government officials during the Human Rights Watch visit to Angola. Each party gave different reasons why children were not included in the demobilization process and pointed out that children could not be integrated into the FAA because they were not eligible for the program. The fact that the issue of child soldiers in Angola was not formally addressed during the negotiations implies that either UNITA did not press to include it or the government was not ready to provide any concrete remedy to the issue.
Regarding these discriminations, Human Rights Watch made some recommendations to the Angolan Government, to the donor countries, to the United Nations Children’s Fund and to the World Bank:
- The Government must ensure that no child is denied enrollment in primary education programs based on age, creating classes for war-affected children who missed educational opportunities.
- The Government must ensure that the rights of children to free elementary education and the highest attainable standard of health is a matter of priority.
- The donor countries must provide technical and financial assistance to the Angolan government in creating demobilization and rehabilitation programs that are appropriate for children.
- The donor countries should be sure to examine experience in Angola and examples from other countries in Africa when seeking to improve the functioning of programs and should ensure that girls are included in the process.
- The donor countries should use diplomatic and all appropriate means to pressure the government to ensure that no children under eighteen years serve in the Angolan armed forces.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund should work with the government to draft applicable exemptions for children who fought in the conflict to ensure that they are not conscripted in the future.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund should continue to work with the government to release any children still serving with the FAA and enlarge the programs to include military bases in the countryside.
- The World Bank should modify existing plans under the Angola – Emergency Demobilization and Reintegration Project (ADRP) to provide additional financial assistance to underage ex-combatants.
- The World Bank should use leverage with the government in the funding and implementation of the ADRP so that former child soldiers will be prioritized.
Child Soldiers: Hope Is Still Alive
Despite the discrimination against child soldiers in Angola during the reintegration process, which drew the attention of NGO like Human Rights Watch, some ex-child soldiers could find their way to success.
Louis Samacumbi, an ex-Angolan child soldier, was abducted at age 14 and forced to serve in the army as a child soldier. Louis faced the horrors of war that few can imagine. The traumatic experience of war drove Louis to seek peace. He won a scholarship in Canada and devoted himself to learning about conflict resolution. He earned a master’s degree in peace studies in South Africa and was selected for the prestigious Archbishop Tutu leadership program.
Today, Luís works at the United Nations Population Fund. His work as a humanitarian is living proof that it is possible to transform tragedy into positive action.
– Milcah Yann
Milcah is based in Chicago, IL, USA and focuses on Global Health and Technologies for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons