In Uganda, an AK-7 can be bought for the cost of a chicken. Previously, the more dangerous weapons were heavy or complex, but now guns are so light that children can use them, and so simple that they can be stripped and reassembled by a child of ten. Children are seen as more obedient, less likely to question orders and easier to manipulate. Many are forcibly recruited, seized from the streets, or even from schools or orphanages whilst others are driven to join armed groups by fear or poverty, believing that this is the only way to achieve some protection from the violence around them or to be sure of regular meals, clothing or medical attention. Child soldiers often start out in support functions.
Boys serve as porters or as messengers.
Girls may prepare food or attend to the wounded. However, both boys and girls are soon forced onto the battlefield, where their youth and inexperience leave them particularly vulnerable. In a particularly brutal variant of 'basic training' children have been deliberately exposed to horrific scenes to harden them to violence. Some have even been forced to commit atrocities against their own families as a way of severing all ties with their communities. The report calls for a global campaign to stop the recruitment of anyone under 18 into armed forces and to encourage governments and opposition groups immediately to demobilize all such children.