By IANS
Bogotá : Colombia’s left-wing guerrillas and extreme-right paramilitaries seduce young girls to recruit them for the armed organisations, a Unicef official has said.
“The situation of the girls and the sexual use to which they are subjected is alarming, even in the case of the girlfriend or partner of a commander of illegal armed groups,” Eduardo Gallardo, Unicef’s child protection official for Colombia, told Radio Caracol Monday.
Gallardo said as soon as the girls are recruited for the groups they are used sexually and forced to have abortions if they become pregnant.
The official said Unicef has heard of such recruitment tactics in the provinces of Cauca, Narino, Choco, Tolima, Arauca and Bolivar, and cities like Soacha, Cali and Cartagena de Indias.
Recently, a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) spokesperson, known as “Raul Reyes”, admitted that the group recruits minors as young as 15.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that more than 11,000 minors are involved in the Colombian conflict, which has pitted several armed organisations against the state for more than 40 years.