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Children Kidnapped, Manipulated and Forced to Murder

For some, childhood memories could include swimming at the beach, going to the amusement park and slurping ice cream on a hot summer day. Although for children in different parts of the world, this is not the case. Their memories are filled with horrific images of death and suffrage. Many countries around the world have resulted on child soldiers to fight in wars and deadly battles. Child soldiers are young children, some as young as 6 years old, that are kidnapped and forced to be trained to become suicide bombers, cooks, soldiers spies, and human shields in times of battle. Former child soldiers are being put on trial to decide whether they should be held accountable for their crimes.
The article “Many DRC Children Volunteer to Fight” by Inna Lazareva suggests that about 45% of recruits for child soldiers in armed forces are volunteers (Lazareva). The author choosing to use the word ‘volunteer’ can be deceiving to the readers by not explaining the full truth. What this article fails to mention is the children agree to join the army, only because it may be the only place that offers food, clothing and a place to stay at night. Just because they are classified as ‘voluntary’ doesn't mean it was their choice. They were most likely desperate for security, or threatened into joining and considered voluntary. he phrase “With a gun you can eat” almost became common knowledge throughout villages with high poverty rates (Lazareva). The term ‘volunteer’ does not justify the actions of the children who join army groups. The villages around the areas with many child soldiers often times have high poverty rates. The correlation between child soldiers and poverty rates is obvious. The higher poverty rates, the more likely there is to be more child soldiers because many are looking for a new life, or even just another