Sec. 221. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The recruitment or use of children in armed conflict is unacceptable for any government or government supported entity receiving United States assistance. The recruitment or use of children in armed conflict, including direct combat, support roles, and sexual slavery, occurred during 2015–2016 in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Entities of the Government of Afghanistan, particularly the Afghan Local Police and Afghan National Police, continue to recruit children to serve as combatants or as servants, including as sex slaves.
Police forces of the Government of Afghanistan participate in counter-terrorism operations, direct and indirect combat, security operations, fight alongside regular armies, and are targeted for violence by the Taliban as well as by other opposition groups. In February 2016, a 10-year-old boy was assassinated by the Taliban after he had been publically honored by Afghan local police forces for his assistance in combat operations against the Taliban. Recruitment and use of children in armed conflict by government forces has continued in 2016 in South Sudan with the return to hostilities.
At least 650 children have been recruited and used in armed conflict in South Sudan in 2016, and at least 16,000 have been recruited since that country’s civil war began in 2013.