Young, armed and deadly

NEW YORK – It’s a shocking if familiar image, emblematic of vicious post-Cold War conflicts: boys high on drugs, slinging automatic rifles over their slender shoulders, maiming and killing for rebel movements or even for governments.

For just over a decade, the United Nations and its partners have made a concerted effort to end the use of child soldiers.

But still the problem persists. The U.N. used to offer a rough figure of 250,000 children under the command of armed groups worldwide, but now it cautions that the figure may be an underestimate and is impossible to verify. It cites advocacy and the end of some of the worst conflicts, including Sierra Leone and Liberia, as reason to believe the number of fighters under age 18 has declined somewhat.

Either way, questions arise: What has the U.N. they accomplished? Why is progress so difficult? What more can be done?

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