Cho Ayaba Lucas has Committed Another Serious War Crime by Recruiting a “Child Soldier” (VIEW PHOTOS!)
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The leader of the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF); Cho Ayaba Lucas; has committed a very serious war crime and will likely stand trial before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after Cameroon becomes a federal state.
Information we got from multiple reliable sources revealed that the chief of the arm forces of Ambazonia recruited a 12 yrs old boy thereby violating international laws prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
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The child soldier (12 yrs of age) recruited by Cho Ayaba Lucas also took part in a bloody battled (known as the Wata na Wata battle) which led to the death of 3 Cameroon security Forces.
The child soldier has been raised to the ranks of a commander owing to his performance in the battle.
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Why recruitment of Child Soldiers is a serious war crime
The 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibited the military recruitment and use of children under the age of 15, which is now recognised as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2002). It applies to both government-controlled armed forces and non-state armed groups.
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The prohibition on the use of children under 15 was ;later reaffirmed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which also defined a child for the first time as any person under the age of 18.
The standard was raised again by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, also known as OPAC (2000). OPAC was the world’s first international treaty wholly focused on ending the military exploitation of children. The treaty prohibits the conscription of children under the age of 18 and their participation in hostilities. It also prohibits the voluntary recruitment of children by non-state armed groups, although it allows state armed forces to recruit from age 16, as long as the children recruited are not sent to war.
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Most states have now signed OPAC, which is (slowly) driving the world towards a de facto ban on the use of children in warfare. But the double-standard that applies to state and non-state recruitment of children is hampering international efforts to persuade non-state armed groups to release the children they have recruited.
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These are some of the reasons why the recruitment of Child Soldiers is highly prohibited by the UN security council…
- Military training is designed to break children down psychologically until they obey commands without question, which can alter their personality in the long term.
- Bullying, physical violence and sexual harassment are common in a military environment.
- In most cases, child recruits are bound by military regulations that would be unlawful in civilian employment, and which can leave them with no right to leave for several years.
- Usually, recruiters target children from disadvantaged communities and troubled family backgrounds, particularly for frontline roles carrying the greatest risks once recruits turn 18 and can be sent to war.
- It is common for recruiters to glamorise military life without fully informing children of the risks and legal obligations involved.
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