How Do These Children Become Soldiers?
All of the child soldiers in Uganda, became involved in this form of labor by force. 80% of the members of the LRA are children, who have been kidnapped, beat, tortured, and forced to fight against innocent people. The goal of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is to turn these young and naive children into cold blooded killers, which is why they kidnap them at young ages when they can still be easily manipulated. As of 2009, it was believed that as many as 38,000 children, both boys and girls, had been kidnapped since 1986. 25 percent of these people, are young girls who are forced to become cooks, and sex slaves for Kony’s soldiers. The rest, are young boys who spend their lives becoming killing machines and beating people to death against their will. The only choice these children are given is to kill or be killed.
The Working Conditions for The Child Soldiers...
The working conditions for these child soldiers in Uganda is extremely cruel. These children of the Lord’s Resistance Army, are faced with violence and abuse from an age as early as eight years old. These children are raped, tortured, and forced to murder people, in the name of “the Holy Spirit.” The children kidnapped by the LRA experience violence and take part in combat at young ages. They are forced to carry heavy loads and weapons, and they are essentially slaves to the rebel leaders. The girls act as wives to these rebel leaders, and are used as sex slaves. Child soldiers of the LRA commit brutal sins such as beating their own parents, or disobedient child soldiers, who have tried to escape, to death. At an extremely impressionable age, these children witness grotesque murderers and acts of violence, which instills in them a murderous mindset. A former child soldier, Charles Akallo, was kidnapped around the age of 12 and transformed from a naive young boy to a killer. He was forced to do things such as murder a man and cut out his brain and eat it, pour gasoline over 8 people and burn them alive, or cut off the ears of people who didn't listen to him. The childhood of these child soldiers has been taken away, and they have all faced severe trauma from the sins they were forced to commit. The working conditions of child soldiers are beyond harsh, and they all live in constant fear.