UN: 5 more countries to end use of child soldiers

Five more countries -- Bolivia, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Kuwait and Yemen -- have signed up to an international declaration promising to end the use of child soldiers, officials said Wednesday. Some 105 countries have now signed up to the so-called "Paris Commitments" agreed in 2007 in France to end the recruitment of child warriors. But the UN says tens of thousands of children are still involved in conflicts around the world. Leila Zerrougui, the UN special representative on children and armed conflict, particularly highlighted an accord reached with Yemen where rival militias are notorious users of under-age soldiers. The new endorsements "demonstrate the international community's resolve to abolish the inhuman practice of child recruitment," said Francois Zimeray, France's human rights ambassador. Nepal and Sri Lanka were this year taken off a UN blacklist of countries that use child soldiers.