By Vicki Turakhia
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali – School closures in Mali have increased the vulnerability for children making them susceptible to violence or recruitment as a child soldier. The increased violence in Mali has caused families to be torn apart. The age of the child soldiers are reported to be as young as 12 years old.

Hassan Toure, a citizen of Mali, has stated that he chose to stay in Mali because he owns a shop there and wanted to prevent the shop from being destroyed or looted. But in March, Toure’s eldest son never returned home and is missing to this day.

While some children have been recruited as child soldiers, some girls also as young as 12, have been kidnapped and raped. In addition, UNICEF is fearful that 560,000 children are at risk for malnutrition this year with 220,000 needing a more involved treatment. Already, 70,000 children have already been treated for malnutrition in Mali this year.

Around 330,000 people have fled their homes in Mali, a fifth of them being children. Many of these people have fled to neighboring countries due to the fighting taking place in Mali.

As of April, the rebels in Mali have announced a new state called Azawad and are fighting with the help of the weapons from Libya. The group fighting for the separate state of Azawad calls themselves the Movement for the National Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and have been known to use child soldiers.

A separate group in Mali fighting against the MNLA, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), have also been using child soldiers. M’Bera, a refugee camp, is where many Malian citizens have gone to get away from the instability.

M’Bera is located in Mauritania and is now considered the fourth largest town in Mauritania. Security has become an issue, the Mauritanian government is reacting by providing free military escorts to aid workers. This is to prevent the same situation that occurred in Dadaab where aid workers were being kidnapped.

Other problems also remain with the availability of resources such as food, water, and firewood. The refugee population is now greater than the local population. The resources are depleted to a point where the humanitarian standard for providing 20 liters of water per person has been diminished to 10 liters per person, per day.

Solutions discussed include dispersing the people of Mali with the use of local hospitality of neighboring countries and people.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Mali: Unicef Warns of Increasing Violence Against Children in North – 6 July 2012

Huffington Post – Mali Conflict: Children Recruited Into Armed Groups, U.N. Says – 6 July 2012

Yahoo News – Mali children raped, maimed, recruited by armed groups – 6 July 2012

All Africa – Mali: Beyond Big Refugee Camps – 3 July 2012

All Africa – Mali: Child Soldiers Used in Conflict – 4 May 2012