Editing Children in the military (section)

=== Non-state armed groups ===
These include [[Violent non-state actor|non-state armed]] paramilitary organisations such as [[militia]]s, [[insurgent]]s, [[terrorist organization]]s, [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla movements]], armed [[liberation movement]]s, and other types of [[quasi-military]] organisation.

{{As of|2022}}, the UN identified 12 countries where children were widely used by such groups: [[Colombia]] in South America; [[Child soldiers in the Central African Republic|Central African Republic]], [[Child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo|Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Mali]], [[Child soldiers in Somalia|Somalia]], [[South Sudan]], and [[Sudan]] in Africa; [[Lebanon]] and Palestine in the Middle East; [[Syria]] and [[Yemen]] in Western Asia; [[Afghanistan]] in Central Asia; and [[Myanmar]] in South East Asia.<ref name="UN SecGen-2022">{{Cite web |last=UN Secretary-General |date=23 June 2022 |title=Children and armed conflict: Report of the Secretary-General |url=https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N22/344/71/PDF/N2234471.pdf |access-date=20 August 2022 |website=United Nations}}</ref>

Not all armed groups use children and approximately 60 have entered agreements to reduce or end the practice since 1999.<ref name="CSI-2016" /> For example, by 2017, the [[Moro Islamic Liberation Front]] (MILF) in the [[Philippines]] had released nearly 2,000 children from its ranks,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicef.org/philippines/media_27217.html|title=UN Officials congratulate MILF for completion of disengagement of children from its ranks|last=UNICEF|date=4 December 2017|website=unicef.org|access-date=25 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117182557/https://www.unicef.org/philippines/media_27217.html|archive-date=17 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and in 2016, the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia|FARC-EP]] [[guerrilla movement]] in Colombia agreed to stop recruiting children.<ref name="UN SecGen-2017b" /> Other countries have seen the reverse trend, particularly [[Afghanistan]] and [[Syria]], where [[Islamism|Islamist]] militants and groups opposing them have intensified their recruitment, training, and use of children.<ref name="UN SecGen-2017b">{{Cite web|url=http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2017/821&Lang=E&Area=UNDOC|title=Report of the Secretary-General: Children and armed conflict, 2017|last=United Nations Secretary-General|year=2017|publisher=United Nations|access-date=24 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125015450/http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S%2F2017%2F821&Lang=E&Area=UNDOC|archive-date=25 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>