child soldiers

In February, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) team reported that 89 children were abducted while doing exams, but said the actual number could be much higher.

The South Sudanese army (SPLA) has admitted forcefully recruiting children into its armed ranks in Upper Nile state, but claimed they were returned to their respective homes.

Army spokesperson Col. Philip Aguer told Sudan Tribune the military leadership directed the department of child protection to carry out joint investigation and found only 36 children in the army.

He however added that these children were successfully reunited with their parents.

The Islamic State group has trained more than 400 children in Syria as fighters in 2015 alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Tuesday.

Calling them “Cubs of the Caliphate,” the jihadist group provides intense military and religious training to children throughout its areas of control in Syria, the Britain-based monitor said. Sleek videos published by I.S.-affiliated accounts show boys—some appearing to be as young as eight years old—loading and firing guns and crawling through sandy brush as part of military training. The footage also shows children gathered around a table studying religious texts.

ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the state of children in the federally administered tribal areas (Fata), Unicef has recommended to the federal government to repeal Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) 1901. The recommendation states that constitutional amendments be made to bring Fata into the mainstream of the country. One of the most vital measures would be to repeal the FCR and introduce a more humane law to deal with adult criminals, separating them from child offenders, and enforcing the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000 for the benefit of child offenders.

Unicef, in collaboration with the Commissioner for Children’s Complaints, Federal Ombudsman, Islamabad, in its comprehensive report on the state of children in Pakistan has also made 19 recommendations to improve the conditions of Fata’s children. “This is perhaps the first time that Fata’s children have been discussed in some detail,” the study claimed.

A former Shreveporter who left a troubled family here to serve as a combat medic in Iraq, and who later served as a new doctor combating Ebola in west Africa, will speak in his home town later this week and sign copies of his new book.

"My mom was in prison most of my life, and my sister did time," says Antonio Webb, 32, who now is in his residency as an orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in the Allendale, Queensborough and Meadows neighborhood off Jewella Avenue.

"My dad did the best he could as a single parent to keep us isolated from what was going on. I was lucky in that I left Shreveport at an early age, 17, after I graduated from high school. If I'd have stayed in Shreveport there would have been a different outcome."