(Philippine Daily Inquirer) – Now that the Marawi conflict has been declared “over,” people’s minds are turning toward rehabilitation and rebuilding. And oh boy, are those needed in the once-beautiful city of Marawi! Link
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(Newsweek) – The use of child soldiers remains alarmingly common in conflicts across the world. From Syria and Iraq to Nigeria and South Sudan, multiple governments and armed groups are exploiting children to fight adult wars. Link
(OSRSG-CAAC) – Boys and girls living in countries affected by armed conflict have been victims of widespread violations in 2016, as documented in the Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict released today and covering the period from January to December 2016. The alarming scale and severity of violations against children in 2016 – including […]
(South China Morning Post) – Perhaps the most chilling images from the siege of Marawi, on the Philippine island of Mindanao, is of propaganda by the Maute group featuring children with guns. Child soldiering is not a new phenomenon in the Philippines. Like those previously recruited into the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), these child soldiers have affinities for […]
(Dev Policy Blog) – The education sector in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) exists within a complex and multi-layered social, political, economic and conflict environment. There are an estimated more than 10,000 displaced children from the recent Marawi conflict who will be unable to attend school this year. Both government troops and local residents have reported […]
(Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network) – It’s a heartbreaking story: A mother finds on Facebook a photo of a boy holding an assault rifle and resembling her son who was kidnapped by house help when he was three years old, and who remains missing. The photo, posted by the Maute group in Marawi City, suggested […]
(Philippines Information Agency) – Cognizant of the State’s responsibility to maintain the neutrality of schools as zones of peace, and to protect learners, teachers, personnel, and community members from attack by state and non-state armed groups, the Department of Education (DepEd) fully accepts and strongly endorses the Safe Schools Declaration. Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones has […]
(AP) – President Duterte said his threat to launch air strikes against tribal schools, because they allegedly teach subversion, would apply only when the buildings are empty, a clarification that still raised concern he was advocating a war crime. Duterte responded to a question in a news conference late Thursday that the bombings will be done at night […]
(HRW) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened airstrikes on schools for indigenous children on the southern island of Mindanao that he alleged are teaching “subversion [and] communism.” “I will bomb those schools,” Duterte said on Monday. “I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force…because you’re operating illegally and you’re teaching the children to rebel against government.” Link
(ABS-CBN) – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday threatened to bomb schools built for the Lumad, saying they are violating laws for spreading subversive ideas. Duterte issued the threats as he linked the Lumad schools to the communist rebels, whom he has tagged as enemies of the state for attacking state troops. Link
