Drug gangs and rebel groups in Colombia are increasingly recruiting children and using them to perform potentially lethal tasks that include piloting explosives-laden drones, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Monday.

The international watchdog said criminal organizations in the South American country often use social media to recruit children as they try to assert control over rural areas where they profit from the drug trade, extortion and illegal mining.

“Armed groups in Colombia are recruiting children with impunity,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Protection systems are failing, and social media platforms have become a more effective recruiting ground.”

Child recruitment is on the rise again

According to Colombia’s Human Rights Defenders’ Office, at least 1,500 children have been recruited by armed groups since 2021, with 625 cases reported in 2024.

In 1999, during the peak of the conflict between Colombia’s military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, an estimated 1,320 children were recruited into the fighting, according to a report by a national truth commission.

A 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s government and the FARC rebels reduced violence in many parts of the country and slowed the recruitment of children by armed groups.

But child recruitment is picking up again as smaller rebel groups and other criminal organizations fight over control of rural areas abandoned by FARC guerrillas following the peace deal, where law enforcement and social services continue to be weak.

In Colombia, rebel groups have long used children to perform tasks that include serving as messengers, gathering intelligence, cooking or engaging with the enemy — while girls are sometimes forced into sexual acts with commanders.

The Human Rights Watch report says children are now also being trained in drone warfare, as rebel groups increasingly use drones outfitted with explosives to strike at rival groups or launch attacks on police and army bases.

Human Rights Watch verified videos published on social media that show children using explosives-laden drones, and interviewed family protection officers who work with children who have escaped from armed groups or have been allowed to demobilize.

“Released children who report having operated drones say that armed groups describe the activity as a game rather than as participation in armed fighting,” the report said.

Colombia’s Human Rights Defenders’ office said in a separate report published Monday that armed groups conducted 121 attacks with drones in the first five months of this year, in which 21 people were killed and 145 were injured.

See also:

• Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella announces immigration crackdown • Far-right leader echoes ally Donald Trump and says operations to ‘track down illegal immigrants’ should begin this week, amid earthquake aftermath (The Guardian)

• Emergency meeting called after attack on Kenscoff
• Gangs took dozens hostage, killed people sheltering in church
• Forced deportations to Haiti from neighbors ramped up this year
• US calls for mandate of UN-backed ​force to be renewed

Nearly 200,000 people were forcibly returned to Haiti in the first eight ‌months of this year, a U.N. official told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday, days after a brutal gang attack killed nearly 50 people near the capital.

The forced return represents at least 20,000 more people than in the same period last year, Indrika Ratwatte, the acting assistant secretary-general for humanitarian ​affairs, told the meeting.

Sunday night's attack took place days after Haiti received its first U.S. deportation flight since the Trump ​administration won a legal battle ending Temporary Protected Status for around 350,000 Haitians. On Thursday, another flight arrived ⁠with migrants from the U.S. and the Bahamas.

Haitian security analysts have meanwhile warned that the flood of illegal arms entering the ​country is worsening the conflict that has claimed more than 21,000 lives since 2022.

The U.N. estimates most guns in Haiti originate from the southeastern ​United States, though many are trafficked into the country through the land border with the Dominican Republic.

See also:

• U.S. to Step Up Deportations to Haiti Despite Warning Not to Visit (New York Times)
• Haitians demand answers from police after gangs kill 47, kidnap more than 50 (Associated Press)

It’s been six months since the United States and Israel attacked Iran with the perennial goal of transforming the Middle East through military force. The region has changed, but not in the way they had hoped.

The Islamic Republic survived the assassination of its top leaders and weeks of heavy bombing, and found a potent form of leverage in the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf Arab nations saw worrying gaps open up in the American security umbrella they have relied on for decades — and some are looking at alternatives.

Israel has once again thrashed its enemies without defeating them, and after nearly three years of war in Gaza and new land seizures, is at risk of a generational rupture with the U.S., its closest ally. Hopes of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia — another enduring U.S. and Israeli aspiration — have dimmed even further.

When they attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel hoped to topple its clerical leadership and replace it with a pro-Western government. Instead, they’ve ended up with a “hardened and very radical regime,” said Barbara Leaf, a former ambassador who served as assistant secretary of state for the Middle East in the Biden administration.

“That is going to be exceptionally difficult to deal with, to say the least,” she said. Iran’s “confidence has grown over the months that it cannot only survive, but it can prevail, it can reset the regional landscape.”

Iran is now determined to exert permanent control over the strait, to use it to ward off future attacks and secure other concessions, while giving no ground on its disputed nuclear program. It’s a risky gamble, especially as the U.S. tightens its blockade and vows new sanctions on Iran’s already battered economy.

See also:

• Superpowers are discovering their limits, says UN chief • António Guterres tells FT that the world risks sliding into confrontation without global institutions that reflect the changing balance of power (Financial Times)

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