Mali kids raped, used as child soldiers

[iolsa]

Dakar - The United Nations Childrens' Fund said Friday that armed groups occupying northern Mali were recruiting children, while others had been raped and killed by explosive devices.

UNICEF said in a statement that evidence collected since the end  of March, when Islamists and other armed groups seized the northern  half of Mali, showed at least 175 boys aged between 12 and 18 had been recruited into armed groups.

The agency also noted that at least eight girls were raped or intercourseually abused. Two boys were killed by explosive devices and another 18 children maimed.

Theophane Nikyema, UNICEF's representative in Mali, said that in  addition to this, some 300,000 children had been affected by the closure of schools and were at higher risk of recruitment, violence  and exploitation.

"These numbers are reason for alarm especially because they represent only a partial picture of the child protection context in  the north - an area where access for humanitarian workers is limited," he said.

Children in the desert region are further facing a severe nutritional crisis which has put some 560,000 young children in Mali at risk of acute malnutrition this year, the statement said.

"More than 330,000 people, a fifth of them children, have fled their homes, with 150 000 internally displaced inside Mali, and over 180,000 seeking refuge in neighbouring countries."

UNICEF said it was in critical need of additional funding, with only 21 percent of its appeal for $58 million (47 million euro) for  2012 met.

Once one of west Africa's most stable democracies, Mali has been  plunged into chaos since soldiers ousted the government on March 22  over its inability to clamp down on a deadly rebellion by Tuareg separatists in the north.

But the coup only eased the way for the Tuareg to seize key northern towns, effectively partitioning the country. However a previously unknown Islamist group fighting on their flanks soon took the upper hand.

They openly allied with Al-Qaeda and pushed the Tuareg fighters out of key positions, installing sharia law, destroying ancient Muslim shrines and rigging one key town with landmines. - Sapa-AFP



IOLSA

[kinguc]

This is crime against God and humanity so sympathetic

[Justin Nnamdi]

Where has the Heart of Man gone to???Children used as Soldiers!!!!Raped??I really think the government of mali should bring those who peperated this Act of injustice to Book