People don’t give a squat about child soldiers: Interest near 18-year low
The child soldier horrors in the Drone Child novel, alas, are not pure fiction.
In the above video, author-activist Michel Chikwanine tells how Congolese rebels forced him as a boy soldier to kill his best friend—just as a 13-year in Child must murder his parents.
That happened years ago, but the atrocities go on. President Biden has acted to try to discourage the use of child soldiers in the Congo and elsewhere, but America could be doing much more (here and here).
Global interest in the general topic of “child soldiers” is near an 18-year low if we rely on search statistics from Google, and the numbers for the US alone are also ugly.
Ideally writings like the Drone Child novel and Chikwanine’s nonfiction book for 10-14-year-olds can encourage more Americans and others to care, especially policymakers. Also of interest: Ishmael Beah’s and Emmanuel Jal’s respective memoirs.
