Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Joe Wilson (2nd District of South Carolina)
Washington, DC – Representatives Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the Ending Child Soldiers in Africa Act. This bill creates a formal reporting structure within the U.S. government on those African nations that recruit, train, and promote child soldiers both in national armed forces, and in insurgent and rebel groups. The legislation also promotes the opening of a Department of Defense Center to help nations de-transition from militant groups with child soldiers and help those children to more easily reintegrate into their home country societies.
“Throughout the African continent child soldiers remain prolific, some recruited to fight by war criminal Putin, for their home nation’s military, or even in local branches of ISIS or Al Qaeda. Ending practices of forced recruitment, kidnapping, and abuse of children to carry out vile military campaigns makes America a safer place,” said Rep. Wilson. “This legislation promotes a ‘center of excellence’ to end child soldiering and ensure every African child has the opportunity to return home and not be forced into global conflicts they did not choose.”
“Armed groups and terrorist organizations across the African continent exploit children as fighters, informants, and tools of violence to fuel instability, which can threaten regional and international security,” said Rep. Panetta. “Our bipartisan legislation would strengthen our understanding of how child soldier recruitment sustains extremist networks and ensure the United States is better equipped to confront these threats.”
“Combatting child soldiering is a national security necessity, not just a moral imperative. Rep. Wilson’s ‘Ending Child Soldiers in Africa Act’ directly targets the roots of regional instability by confronting how terrorist and criminal networks exploit religious narratives to weaponize youth and siphon resources out of African economies – while directing them into value chains connected to our adversaries and strategic competitors,” said Michael “Mick” Patrick Mulroy, Co-founder, Lobo Institute. “By disrupting these recruitment pipelines and transnational criminal and terrorist networks, this Act can protect children, stabilize critical regions, secure critical mineral supply chains, and advance U.S. national security.”
A copy of the full legislation is available here.
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