Fighting Back: Child and Community-led Strategies to Avoid Children’s Recruitment Into Armed Forces and Groups in West Africa

Summary

Fighting Back looks at the experiences of children living in conflict situations, and focuses on strategies to prevent the recruitment of children into armed groups. Following interviews and discussion with around 300 children and 200 parents and carers in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone, it highlights a number of preventative strategies used by children, families and communities. These include moving to a safe place and avoiding family separation. This report reveals the complexity of the issue of children’s recruitment into armed forces. It highlights the need for context-specific responses that focus on child protection mechanisms, attitudes towards recruitment, education and poverty alleviation. The research findings will be of interest to governmental, NGO and UN initiatives to prevent child recruitment in West Africa and beyond.