This special day commemorates the 1976 Soweto Uprising, where thousands of students were ambushed by the apartheid regime. This is a day that people in Africa pay tribute to the lives of students and the role of the youth in the liberation struggle of South Africa from the apartheid regime. The commemorations across the whole continent is a symbolic gesture of resistance against all forms of injustices by the youth of Africa.
This year’s theme was ‘Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience of Young People for a Better Tomorrow’. It is thus important to reflect on some of the challenges that are faced by millions of youths in a continent, which faces a complex web of socio-economic and political challenges. It is important to note that from 1950 to present, Africa’s population has grown steadily to 1.3 billion, which makes it the second largest population after Asia. Africa has the youngest population with a median age of 20. In addition, 60% of the population in the continent is under the age of 25 and the number of those under the age of 35 is almost a billion amounting to 22% of the world’s total youth population. Despite the dominant population of youth in Africa, the socio-economic and political opportunities that are available to them pales into insignificance when juxtaposed with the many socio- economic and security challenges that they face in their daily lives.
Youth unemployment Some observers state that the youth bulge that the African continent is experiencing is both an opportunity and a challenge as this large youth population provides an opportunity for the continent to address sustainable development. As the continent is blessed with natural resources, so the creativity and innovation of its youthful population can play a key role in the continent’s economic transformation. However, it must be noted that about 16 million young African are facing unemployment.
Each year about 11 million young people join the labour market, but the continent only generates only around 3.7 million jobs annually. It is this lack of job opportunities that millions of youths end up in the informal sector by default. However, the downside of the informal sector in the Sub Saharan region is that there is acute lack of access to social safety nets or any form of workers rights.
The frustration and hopelessness of an unemployed young population can in its extreme have severe consequences on national security of many African states. Some insurgency groups take advantage of youth frustration and hopelessness to recruit and radicalise them and later carry out atrocities against local populations. It is estimated that 40% of people who join rebel or insurgency groups are motivated by lack of economic opportunity. Besides joining insurgency or rebel groups, socio-economic and political marginalisation drives many of the continent’s youth population into organised crime such as banditry, armed robberies, fraud, piracy, small arms and narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, etc. This then adds to the already existing complex security challenges facing the continent. Child soldiers in armed conflict
Many states in Africa such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, South Sudan and the rest of the Sahel region are facing deadly armed conflict, which has impacted adversely on children. A recent UN Report verified that at present there are 8,521 children who are used as soldiers in the world and 40% of these child soldiers are estimated to be in Africa. The DRC has the highest number of child soldiers in Africa. The reasons why many rebel groups prefer to use child soldiers is that they are expendable, replaceable and cheap to maintain. They are also psychologically vulnerable as they can lack a sense of fear and can be easily assigned some dangerous tasks by leaders of rebel groups. In addition they are easy to be influenced and controlled as they are dependent on protection and guidance.
However, it must be noted that the trauma that they go through as soldiers are very difficult to reverse.
Child trafficking The nature of trafficking humans in Africa is anchored on lies, coercion and forced slavery. The Office of the UN on Drugs and Crime released a report: ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons’ which shows that children represent more than 75% of trafficking victims in West Africa. However, in all other sub regions of the continent of Africa, the phenomenon of child trafficking is very common. Transnational human traffickers use the Internet technology especially the social media to lure unsuspecting youths with fake job adverts, scholarships and promises of marriage and a life of luxury abroad. The victims are then subjected to a dehumanising life of forced labour and prostitution.
Child suicide terrorism The use of female and child suicide terrorism gained prominence in Africa after it was applied by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and some parts of the Lake Chad Basin. Boko Haram has used more female suicide terrorism than any other terrorist group in history. For example, between 2011 and 2017, Boko Haram has deployed more than 434 suicide bombers to 247 different targets. Of all these, 51% were women and 81 of the bombers were identified as children with an age range of 7-10 years.
From all what I have posited, it is very clear that millions of many youths in the continent face serious socio-economic and political challenges that need serious intervention from Africa’s leadership and other stakeholders to provide opportunities for youths to engage in meaningful ways of living because if nothing is done, security implication of youth socio-economic and political marginalisation may be complex to mitigate in the future.
