BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC — He was 12 years old when his older brother was shot dead, 14 when a militia recruited him, fed him drugs and put him on the front lines, and now at 16, he is trying to move past the fighting, as the crisis in his country worsens.
Jean is one of the Central African Republic’s estimated 6,000 child soldiers and he tells his story while sitting on a bench in a makeshift classroom, occasionally wiping sweat from his forehead in the 40-degree heat. There are only 235 child soldiers like Jean from across the country who have been released by militia groups this year following negotiations with United Nations representatives.
Twenty years ago, as the head of the UN mission in Rwanda during the genocide that killed 800,000 in just 100 days, Dallaire’s calls for intervention went unheeded until too late. …
