Thread by @LaurenBinDC

Interesting to see the sudden upsurge of stated concern over the use of child soldiers in Tigray from social media accounts that haven't previously expressed concern with the implications of the conflict for children there.
unicef.org/press-releases…

International humanitarian law prohibits the recruitment and use of children below the age of 15 in hostilities. A helpful summary from ICRC here:
casebook.icrc.org/glossary/child…

Many of the accounts expressing outrage now over the reports of child soldiers in Tigray, however, have not expressed similar concern over the estimated 140,000 children there whom UNICEF reported were face famine-like conditions in June.
unicef.org/press-releases….

Some of these accounts reference photos by @nytimes' @finbarroreilly of what appear to be under-age fighters (O'Reilly reports seeing children carrying weapons), but make no reference to his photos of children wounded in mortar or air strikes.
instagram.com/p/CRO8G3Rr-NN/…

Reports of women being raped in front of their children, of children being raped, of parents being killed in front of their children - these are among the many documented abuses in the Tigray conflict.

The International Criminal Court defines the recruitment and use of child soldiers as a war crime. Ethiopia is not, however, a party to the Rome Statute. Such issues should, though, presumably fall within the scope of the OHCHR/EHRC and ACHPR inquiries.

*facing*