Young female fighters in African wars - conflict and its consequences

IN THE NUMEROUS ARMED CONFLICTS that are tearing the

African continent apart, young women are participants and carry

guns alongside their male comrades-in-arms. Challenging the

stereotype of women in African wars as victims only, this issue of

the Nordic Africa Institute Policy Dialogues shows how in modern

African wars women have often been as active as men. Female

fighters are victimized, yet they are not mere victims. Girls and young

women who volunteer to fight often possess quite considerable

strength and independence.

Programmes for disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating former

fighters must be based on better understanding of the range of

women’s roles and experiences in war and post-war settings in

order to act in a gender-sensitive way and to empower this group

of women in the aftermath of war.