Child soldiers on the rise in Mozambique

Despite the existence of international agreements, the use of children in war has become commonplace in several African conflicts

- Erika van der Merwe

Since the start of 2025, more than 120 children have been abducted in Mozambique's northernmost province of Cabo Delgado. Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) have documented a series of attacks on the villages of Mumu, Chibau, Ntotwe and Magaia, with aid workers warning that the true scale of child kidnappings is likely far higher than is being reported.

Although six of the abducted children have since been released by the insurgents, many remain unaccounted for. Those who have returned struggle to reintegrate into communities still reeling from conflict.

Cabo Delgado's recent spike in child abductions is neither incidental nor novel. It forms part of a longstanding tactic used by insurgent groups who struggle to recruit voluntary members and turn to conscripting children instead. Too often, these child abductions are treated as an unfortunate byproduct of conflict, rather than a deliberate targeting of a community's most vulnerable members. As the conflict in Cabo Delgado enters a new phase, a more serious reckoning with the weaponisation of children is urgently required, one that demands a dedicated policy and peacebuilding response.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), along with its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000), defines a child as any person below the age of 18 and explicitly bans their participation in conflict. From the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, the Allied Democratic Forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province in Nigeria, abducting children is a well-known strategy for recruiting human capital and influence.