September 23, 2026, marked the signing of the African Convention on the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Child Soldiers during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly— the first African treaty providing for regional cooperation to prevent and combat the recruitment of children by armed groups. Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates reports that around twenty African countries signed the historic convention.

And, only two months before this, in July of 2026, eleven Central African nations (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe) met at the Conference on Children and Armed Conflict in Central Africa to endorse another regional prevention strategy on children in armed conflict.

Both efforts are helping to reinforce the commitment made by the United Nations General Assembly on May 25, 2000, when the Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict was adopted. This protocol mandates that nations and armed groups do not recruit children under the age of 18 to be sent onto the battlefield. To date, it has been ratified by 173 countries.

Despite the protocol, UNICEF reports that between 2005 and 2022, more than 150,000 children have been verified as recruited and that the actual number is thought to be much higher. Many have been wounded, tortured, and maimed; others have been killed. Those who return to their communities are often shunned and treated as pariahs. Recovery, though possible, is difficult.
Several large organizations, such as UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Save the Children, and World Vision, have multi-pronged missions including a commitment to preventing the use of children in armed conflict and bettering the lives of former child soldiers. Other smaller non-profits, like War Child, Invisible Children and Child Soldiers International, target goals and resources more narrowly, working tirelessly to stop child recruitment and protect those children affected by war.

All are seeking answers: How to build a future where children can grow up untarnished by war, neither recruited by an armed force nor impacted by violence?