Pope John Paul II on Sunday denounced the plight of child soldiers in conflicts around the world, saying they were both the victims and the protagonists of war.
"In some parts of the world, particularly in the poorest countries, children and adolescents are the victims of a terrible form of violence: they are enrolled as fighters in forgotten wars," the pope said.
"They suffer an outrageous double aggression as both the victims and actors of war, drawn into the hatred of adults," the pontiff said during his weekly Angelus prayer.
"Deprived of everything, they see their future threatened by a nightmare that is difficult to escape," he added.
According to United Nations estimates, around 300,000 children world-wide, many of them in African civil wars, are forced into soldiering, experiencing traumas that become a huge social problem for countries after the conflict ends.
The pope also made a broad appeal for action to relieve the suffering of children caught up in war and its aftermath.
"For the youngest of our brothers, who suffer from hunger, war and sickness, we ask the adult world to hear their cries... and act in support of endangered and abandoned childhood," he said.
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