Roles of Girls in Fighting Forces Overlooked, Post-conflict Needs Neglected

Women of Sierra Leone fill the leadership void

Washington, DC—The idea of a young child carrying a loaded gun, spying on enemy villages, and organizing guerrilla raids is a tragedy of lives—and innocence—lost. But it happens every day, from Sierra Leone to Liberia, from Uganda to the DR Congo. Whether abducted or recruited voluntarily, these children are integral members of fighting forces. Increasingly, those youngsters are girls.

In a new report, From Combat to Community: Women and Girls of Sierra Leone, by Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace, researchers interviewed 50 girls, who told detailed accounts of life in guerrilla compounds and paramilitary camps. Some fought on the frontlines, others served as medics, spies, and cooks. “Mariama” was just seven years old when she was captured and spent ten years with rebel forces as a fighter. She received basic military training with machine guns and pistols. “Agnes” was abducted when she was nine years old, forced to be a “wife” of a rebel commander. In his absence, she was in charge of the military compound, organizing raids and fighting units. Often forced to commit atrocities, these children were both victims and perpetrators of war.

The Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace study debunks the myth of girls solely as victims of sex crimes by warring soldiers. Of the estimated 45,000 children in the fighting forces, about 12,000 were girls, according to human rights groups—nearly double official statistics. But when the government dismantled the fighting units, confiscated guns, and helped soldiers return home, only about 500 girl fighters were included in this effort. A mere fraction could take advantage of benefits for ex-combatants, including financial aid, skills training, and education. Hundreds of girls, with no support from their soldier “husbands” or the state, survive on petty crime and prostitution. Others have reportedly crossed borders to join fighting forces in nearby countries.

Sierra Leone’s program to disarm soldiers and return them to civil life has been touted as a model for other countries. But the program has failed girls, and the consequences are troubling, especially as the UN is leading efforts to disarm child soldiers and restore peace in Liberia. If lessons learned on the ground in Sierra Leone are not applied to their West African neighbor, its fragile peace will be jeopardized.

Despite being excluded from Sierra Leone’s official post-conflict programs, women’s groups filled the void and reached out to the abandoned girls. They offered counseling, childcare, and access to education. Some women whose own children were killed opened their homes to former child soldiers and their babies. According to report co-author Dyan Mazurana, “Girls were helped by widows who themselves were displaced, scraping together meager resources to get by.”

To prevent mistakes of Sierra Leone happening in other countries, Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace recommends a number of key steps for national and international actors to take when disarming fighters and returning them back home. These include: assume that women are part of fighting forces, and that from 10-33 percent of child fighters might be girls; accept females into their official programs even if unarmed or unaccompanied by men; and extend the definition of combatant to include those who were part of a “regular armed force in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks and messengers…and girls recruited for sexual purposes…” in accordance with existing norms followed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Most importantly, women need to be included in all stages of peace negotiations and reconstruction. In Sierra Leone, they were largely left out of official government talks. Yet they were pivotal in galvanizing mass demonstrations that led to the end of the war. They now play significant but unacknowledged roles in the caring for former child fighters struggling to return to normal life. Women are natural community leaders who deserve a voice in the design and implementation of official programs of disarmament and reintegration. Only then will young girls, children, and women fighters have an equal shot at benefits for ex-combatants and a chance for a stable community—and family—life.

Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace, an initiative of Hunt Alternatives Fund, is a global network that advocates for the full participation of women in peace building. The Policy Commission is conducting a series of case studies to document women’s contributions to peace processes across conflict areas worldwide. The cases studies are available online at www.WomenWagingPeace.net

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