Hiiraan Online
Monday May 22, 2017
Brigadier Patrick Muta Nderitu (right) the Director of the International Peace and Security Training Centre (IPSTC) and Darin Reeves (left), the Lead Facilitator of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, present a certificate to Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud from Somali Police Force after successful completion of the AMISOM Training of Trainers course on the prevention of the recruitment and use of children as weapons of war, for security sector actors at the International Peace and Security Training Centre, Nairobi, Kenya on May 19, 2017. AMISOM Photo
NAIROBI ( HOL) - AMISOM has completed a ten-day training course for Somali security actors on deterrence of use of child soldiers in Somalia’s conflict. The ‘Training of Trainers’ course ended in Nairobi on Friday with a commitment to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The training is organized by the Protection and Human Rights and Gender unit within AMISOM. It was sponsored by the British Embassy in Somalia partnership.
“I believe all the participants in this course are now much better prepared in their understanding of how to deal with children in general and child soldiers in particular in a proactive and not a reactive fashion,” Mr. Darin Reeves, the Lead Facilitator from Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative said.
The course was drawn by participants from regional and federal administration and AMISOM.
Mr. Reeves emphasized the importance of protecting children in situations of conflict.
“This course was an eye opener. We learnt many things that we didn’t know before,” Col. Osman Sheikh, a participant said at the end of the training.
The closing remarks were made by Brigadier Patrick Muta Nderitu, the Director of the International Peace and Security Training Centre in Kenya.
“Children affected by armed conflict can be injured or killed, uprooted from their homes and communities, internally displaced as refugees, orphaned or separated from their parents and families, subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, victims of trauma, as a result of being exposed to violence, deprived of education and recreation,” he pointed out, stressing the need to ensure children as not used as a weapon of war.
“It is my sincere hope that the training will enable you chart new ways to help curb the issue of recruiting and use of child soldiers in Somalia”, Brigadier Nderitu concluded.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over a security council report released in January that said nearly $6,200 children were recruited over a six year period. The UN estimates that half of Al-Shabaab’s forces were children.
Although Al-Shabaab is the main offender, the Somali National Army and other militia groups have also been complicit in using children during conflict.