Morocco emphasised on Friday before the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) the need for an urgent and coordinated response to protect children affected by armed conflicts.
Speaking during a virtual public session of the AU PSC on “Children Affected by Armed Conflicts,” the delegation from Morocco’s permanent mission to the AU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa reaffirmed
the Kingdom’s firm commitment to protecting children impacted by conflict, calling for immediate and coordinated action.
The delegation highlighted that this issue remains one of the most tragic blind spots in African peace and security, exposing an entire generation to instability, violence, and the collapse of protective structures.
The Moroccan representatives stressed that the impact of conflict on children is deep, multifaceted, and often irreversible, including displacement from their environment, disruption of education, health hazards, food insecurity, and physical and psychological trauma, all of which demand a comprehensive response grounded in concrete prevention, protection, and rehabilitation mechanisms.
Morocco also warned against the cynical exploitation of children in armed conflicts, denouncing forced recruitment, direct exposure to hostilities, and the use of children as logistical agents or human shields, noting that such practices constitute clear violations of international and humanitarian law.
In response to this reality, Rabat called for more systematic documentation of violations, strengthened monitoring and traceability mechanisms, and the integration of prevention at the core of strategies to mitigate the impact of conflict on children, aiming for an urgent and coordinated response.
The delegation stressed that the reintegration of affected children must be structured and accompanied by education, psychosocial support, and access to sustainable economic opportunities, noting that reintegration should be a central pillar of any crisis exit strategy.
Morocco further highlighted the need to firmly condemn the impact of armed conflicts on children and the recruitment of child soldiers, to systematically integrate protection and reintegration measures into disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programs and post-conflict strategies, and to embed child protection into early warning systems to identify vulnerability at an early stage.
AK/lb/gik/APA