Children who come from poor communities, largely uneducated and dealing with survival issues, and living in regions of conflict, are the most likely to become child soldiers.

Children living in resource rich areas of conflict, or in land and agriculturally rich rural areas, are also highly vulnerable. Children living in regions where there is geo-political, ethno-political or ideological conflict, are highly vulnerable. Children living in regions where divide and rule tactics created anger and hatred by one group over another are vulnerable. Children living in tribal indigenous cultures, such as rainforest, mountain or deep forest nations, are vulnerable.

Children as young as seven, and through teen age, are the most vulnerable. Girls as well as boys are equally vulnerable.

Children usually become soldiers through abduction or coercion or through mandatory conscription or forced recruitment. Children and youth from indigenous rural populations are especially at risk. Others join to accompany an older family member, or are encouraged to join by family members as a source of income or protection. In some regions, such as West Africa, urban children from the poorest communities are highly vulnerable. In repressive regimes such as Burma/Myanmar, rural and poor children are highly vulnerable.

In regions where land is an object of control, such as in Columbia, and formerly in Guatemala and El Salvador, children are abducted by one side or the other and forced into child soldiering as pawns in military strategies to remove indigenous families from their land.

For some children, joining a military organization provides a sense of security, takes care of immediate survival needs and bestows a sense of identity. In some instances, children join liberation struggles, such as during the Freedom Struggle in apartheid South Africa, or to counter a threat to a group or nation. Political and religious ideologies also motivate some children to join military organizations. Governments also conscript children as part of its national military force.

For other children, such as in Northern Uganda, rebel forces such as the Lord’s Resistance Army, as Renamo did in Mozambique until the early l990’s, target and abduct children as the soldier of choice. In Northern Uganda, where an 18 year war continues to terrorize the civilian population of Kitgum, Gulu and Pader Districts, 90% of LRA’s army is composed of abducted children. In Colombia, where a 40 year war continues to terrorize the mostly rural civilian population, the vast majority of combatants on all sides are children.