West Africa has highest numbers of child soldiers, says UN

By SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund says children in West and Central Africa have become the most recruited by armed groups in the world and have the highest number of victims of sexual violence. The report says for five years the region has seen an increasing number of new and protracted conflicts into which more than 21,000 children have been recruited by government forces and armed groups. It says more than 2,200 children in the region have been victims of sexual violence since 2016. It says more than 3,500 children have been abducted, making it the region with the second-highest abductions in the world.