According to the website of Human Rights Watch, as of July, 2007, an estimated 200,000-300,000 children, many of them press-ganged into service or beaten and threatened, were soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts. here are just a few horrific examples of their exploitation:
Democratic Republic of Congo Thousands of children serve in the military, as well as the various rebel militias. At the height of the Second Congo War, the UN estimated that more than 30,000 children were fighting with various parties to the conflict.
Sierra Leone The murders, rapes thousands of amputations committed by Small Boys Unit of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone's civil war (1991-2001.) are devastatingly described in such books as A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, himself a former child soldier.
Afghanistan Some Taliban fighters are taken from Islamic religious schools and allegedly used as suicide bombers and gunmen. A propaganda video of boys marching and chanting slogans of martyrdom was issued in 2009 by the Taliban, including a eulogy to a 14-year-old boy who killed an American soldier.
Myanmar According to Human Rights Watch, as many as 70,000 boys serve in Burma's national army, with children as young as 11 forcibly recruited off the streets. Desertion is punished by three to five years in prison or even execution.
Colombia In 2005, an estimated 11,000 children were involved with left-wing guerrillas or right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia, some 80 per cent of them belonging to a left-wing guerrilla groups, the FARC or ELN. The rest fight for paramilitary groups. It's been reported that a 1998 FARC attack on a hydroelectric facility allegedly involved militants as young as 8 and a FARC training video showed boys as young as 11 working with missiles.