Babes in Warland Agrarian Reforms Urbanization and Child Abuse

Babes in Warland; Agrarian Reforms/Urbanization and Child Abuse

Babes in Warland agrarian reforms urbanization and child abuse_A2072388

The pictorial shows how perpetrators of civil wars take advantage of children. Children are enlisted in rebel army ranks in many armed conflicts in the African continent. Amnesty International estimates that over 250, 000 children under the age of 18 years take part in armed conflicts. UNICEF reports that the services of more than 300-000 children are used in the armed conflicts in the DRC. The services of child soldiers have been enlisted in virtually all armed conflicts in Africa. Talk of Zairean Tutsi fighters in the DRC, the Young Somali Islamist fighters, the Al-shabab militias, Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army in Uganda and the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy fighters. The United States backed Somali government also enlisted child soldiers (Anonymous, n.d.).

Armed conflicts that have led to conscription of child soldiers into rebel army ranks are occasioned by competition over land. Land continues to be very scarce as population grows. Because of agricultural intensification and commercialization, the value of land has also gone high in many regions. In areas where we currently have armed conflicts, land was traditionally used for farming and herding. As customary institutions that balanced different interests weakened, tension ensued. People started competing for strategic natural resources like few irrigated lands, water points, and pastures. Conflicts that have been witnessed in southern Africa have largely been occasioned by inequitable land distribution and slow land reform programs. This can be cited in Zimbabwean case where many white owned commercial farms were invaded (Cotula, Toulmin & Hesse, 2004). The Zimbabwean case echoes the need for land reforms and reparations. Private investors' activities have also generated conflicts (Moyo, 2008). These individuals use the lands for commercial production and speculation to mining at the expense of the local natives. People who seek land where they can settle and farm also contribute to too many land conflicts in Africa. Large numbers of people flow into such areas to settle and farm. There are always tensions between incomers and the indigenous people. These people share nothing in common with regards to social and cultural values. Situations do get out of control when there are no laws that govern land use and ownership. Fear and suspicion build up between neighbors and even families. When the government tries to intervene by putting in place agricultural projects and commercial farm enterprises, instability in land relations sets in. Take an example of North Kivu in DRC where several lives were and are still being lost and thousands rendered homeless, in-migration by different ethnic groups seeking land, dispossession of small farmers' land by chiefs, uncertainty, and confusion over whether the migrants were citizens of DRC, contributed to the conflicts. Youths were also frustrated and lacked hope. Armed conflicts have major implications for land tenure systems. Once the war has weakened local institutions managing and administering land rights, there emerges widespread tenure insecurity. This creates a leeway where the elites within a society grab land. This renders the poor landless with nowhere to stay and farm. They subsequently flock urban centers where they suffocate urban amenities. Many such people end up staying in slums. Large chunks of lands in areas that were ravaged by armed conflicts are dotted with land mines. Such pieces of land cannot be productively used. Armed conflicts are characterized with swelling refugee population who can hardly access land in their temporary residences. After the end of the conflict, returnees do lay claims for land. This can further fuel conflicts (Cotula, Toulmin & Hesse, 2004).