“Eight people came, then mum said no, and well, she cried, and so did I, because I didn’t want to go,” says a rescued child who had been forcibly recruited by an armed group, in a video testimonial of the Colombian Army and the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).
Another victim says that at the age of 15 he was studious and well-behaved until he was forcibly taken by an armed group. “They take advantage of people […]. They see that you are going through a difficult time, such as financial or work-related problems or something like that,” the minor says in the same audiovisual.
These video testimonials and the calls for the prevention of the recruitment of minors, made by the Army’s radio stations, reinforce the work of the Colombian Military Forces to prevent this scourge in the national territory. Their messages repeated yearlong, also become more visible every February 12, on Red Hands Day, a global day to raise awareness for the fight against the recruitment of minors in armed conflicts.
As part of this celebration, in 2025, Colombia ratified its commitment to the rights of children and adolescents by adopting the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with more than 150 countries, the Ministry of Defense indicated. According to the Ministry, between 2022 and 2024, 646 children and adolescents were rescued from armed groups and placed in the care of the ICBF, the entity in charge of reestablishing their rights.
“The Military Forces work in coordination with entities such as the ICBF, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Police, to guarantee a comprehensive response,” the Miliary Forces’ General Command (CGFFMM) told Diálogo. “This collaboration includes the immediate delivery of the recovered minors to the competent authorities and support in the prosecution of those responsible.”
The prevention of recruitment messages reached 137 municipalities during 2024, thanks to the coordination of the ICBF and the authorities. These messages reached 93,149 Colombian inhabitants of these municipalities, through workshops, sports days, mass events, and training aimed at the Public Force, with the objective of creating protective environments and strengthening institutional capacities, the Ministry of Defense indicated.
“During 2024, the Colombian Military Forces carried out 1,493 awareness-raising activities for the prevention of forced recruitment of children, youth, and adolescents,” the CGFFMM said. “And so far in 2025 [up to late February] 116 activities have been organized, including talks to parents, radio programs, loudspeaker announcements, distribution of flyers, checkpoints, cinema in the park, and recreational activities.”
“Thanks to military operations framed within respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, […] decisive blows were dealt against crime in the country, the lives of these minors were saved, and their rights restored,” the Colombian Army said in a late 2024 statement. “This scourge was most acute in 10 departments of the country, and our troops went there with the support and unified action of the State to recover these minors.”
The recruitment cases are concentrated in regions of Colombia that have historically been hit by the armed conflict, with Cauca department being the most affected by this phenomenon, with 300 cases reported, according to the Ombudsman’s Office. In this department, Army troops, with the support and unified action of the state, were able to recover 72 minors in 2024, the highest number of minors rescued among the 10 departments in which operations were carried out, the Army said.
The other departments in which the Army recovered minors, in ascending order, were Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Chocó, Meta, Huila, Nariño, Tolima, Santander, and Norte de Santander. All the minors were placed under the protection of the ICBF.
“As for the armed groups that recruit the most in the country, the Central General Staff [dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] was the main group identified in the recruitment of at least 135 minors, with January [2024] being the month with the highest number of reported cases,” the Ombudsman’s Office said.
The other armed groups allegedly responsible for these illegal recruitments are unspecified dissidents, 162 cases; unidentified groups, 84 cases; the National Liberation Army, nine cases; the Second Marquetalia, seven cases; the Clan del Golfo, seven cases; and organized crime, five cases.
“The forced recruitment of children is a heinous crime,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said via X on November 19, 2024, after learning of the murder of a 15-year-old boy by FARC dissidents in El Plateado, Cauca, for refusing to be recruited. “It not only shows the weakness of the violent group that no one joins of their own free will, only under duress, but that they are willing to use children as human shields in the fighting against the state.”
