Syria, increasing recruitment of children by militant groups

The recruitment of children by foreign-sponsored militant groups operating in Syria against the central government has steadily increased over the past three years, from 813 children employed by armed groups, according to a United Nations report. in 2020, to 1,296 in 2021, to 1,696 in 2022. Of the 1,696 cases of child soldiers identified in 2022, 700 belong to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its affiliated militias, including the Protection Units of the people (Ypg). In 2019, one of the SDF commanders, Mazloum Abdi, signed an action plan with the UN to end the practice, but the recruitment of child soldiers appears to have continued.

In addition, Nodem Shero, a representative of one of the Child Protection Offices run by the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (also known as Rojava), said he had received 20 complaints related to the recruitment of minors in the controlled areas. by pro-American armed groups. The procedures triggered by these complaints, she added, made it possible to bring back to their respective families four children, who served in the ranks of the SDF. The others, Shero specified, belong to other anti-government armed groups.

The same goes for the so-called Syrian National Army, a military formation in opposition to the Damascus government, supported by Turkey, which includes 611 child soldiers. The phenomenon, moreover, also concerns the "rebel" militias of al-Qaeda and Daesh matrix (ISIS, a monster created by the USA and financed by Washington's allies), such as the Levant Liberation Front, in whose ranks 383 cases of child recruitment.