Armed groups are exploiting COVID-19 to recruit children
Back in September we wrote about the potential downside the pandemic could have in volatile areas such as Columbia if the issue of lack of schooling wasn’t addressed.
This article in UK newspaper The Guardian is unfortunately demonstrating our fears.
Luis Troches was walking home from the shop in late July when armed men stopped him along a dirt road in south-west Colombia. They gave the 14-year-old an ultimatum: he could join their group – dissidents from the demobilised Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) – or they could take him and his 11-year-old sister by force.
With the pandemic in full swing across Colombia, armed groups are exploiting COVID-19 measures intended to protect the public to escalate conflicts over territorial control and drug-trafficking routes. Indepaz, a local conflict watchdog, has reported 68 murders this year, often involving young people, and the killing of 246 community leaders.
Child recruitment rates, which had gradually increased since the 2016 peace deal, rocketed this year as the pandemic closed schools and worsened living conditions.
Militias lure children with promises of cash, mobile phones and motorcycles. Sometimes they offer up to $400 (£303) a month – almost twice the minimum wage – a fortune for families living in poverty.
Schools – usually a safe place – have remained closed for months leaving children on the streets and more exposed to recruitment. Due to poor internet access, phone signals and electricity, at least 13,000 students had given up on their studies by August.
For families in the north of Cauca, time is running out. Luis and his family fled the area, but other children have not been able to run away. In the rural hillsides of Corinto, Gonzalo Cuetia, a local patrol chief, said 20% of young people had been recruited into armed gangs this year in a blow for his community and the wider peace process.
“In our families and in our communities, we dream that our youth can replace us as defenders of life, we want them to support the community, not destroy it.”
- Gonzalo Cuetia
theunconnected.org are not suggesting we can solve the crisis in Columbia but we can not sit back and watch this beautiful country revert back to the chaos of yesteryear.
