Child recruitment by armed groups in Colombia quadruples in last 5 years, says UNICEF

BOGOTA, Colombia — The forced recruitment of children by illegal armed groups in Colombia has quadrupled over the last five years, UNICEF said Thursday, citing a surge in regional violence and a systemic lack of opportunities within vulnerable communities.

''Children are not merely caught in the crossfire; they are being systematically recruited and exploited by armed groups,'' said Tanya Chapuisat, the UNICEF Representative in Colombia. She emphasized that the consequences for these youth and their families are devastating, calling for ''urgent action'' to ensure their protection.

Official United Nations records show a stark upward trend. While 116 cases of recruitment were verified in 2020, that number climbed to 453 by 2024. These figures are based on the latest Secretary-General's report on children and armed conflict.

However, the actual number of recruitment cases could be much higher due to underreporting, usually caused by the fear among victims' families of retaliation from illegal armed groups.

Despite a historic peace agreement with FARC guerrillas in 2017, violence has persisted over the last decade as FARC dissidents and other illegal groups vie for control of illicit economies that used to be under the control of the guerrilla group.

According to UNICEF, the increase in child recruiting is due to escalating violence in these areas, poverty, lack of education and limited access to social services and infrastructure.

''Children are often forced to enlist to help their families or to escape violence at home. Others do so after receiving threats to their safety,'' the report stated.

Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press that they found two types of recruitment structures. The first operates within the illegal armed group, which uses some of its members to seek out children.

''They identify children in need and provide for them: if they are hungry, they bring them food; if a girl is alone, they charm her. In many cases, it's someone known to the family, which makes it difficult to resist recruitment,'' Dickinson said.

The second method involves ''independent recruiters,'' who are not affiliated with armed groups but dedicate themselves to finding children and then selling them to the group that offers the most money.

''Each child has a value based on their characteristics," she said. "They told me that a girl ‘with a good body' can fetch one million pesos ($272) and a boy 500,000 pesos ($135).

The UN has also warned that recruiters are using social media to lure minors.