Marginalised By Disqualification: The Lived Experiences of Combatant and Non-Combatant Children of Nigeria’s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR).

The child soldiers in this study refer to children with typical functioning characteristics in sustaining war efforts below the age of eighteen with state or non-state actors. In post-conflict situations, legal principles suggest that child soldiers receive attention in disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes through the children’s DDR process, which differs from the adult type, yet most experience marginalisation. Child reintegration types critically represent family reunification, psychosocial support, livelihood support, and education or literacy; however, they are fraught with challenges, thus complicating their successful reintegration. This study explores the impact of these reintegration elements in scholarship, expressly when excluded in DDR, in understanding sociocultural themes such as family, economic issues, increased vulnerability, and gender intersectionality, which situates the child soldiers’ lived experiences. In this study context, lived experiences imply child soldiers’ shared intersubjective experiences of their daily routine engagement in passing or living through reintegration.

When a child soldier misses formal reintegration, it becomes self-reintegration, which this study argues poses risks to their successful progression to civilian life. Education and skills reintegration result in new employment, and when lacking, often incorporates hustling or youth bulge in meeting livelihoods. These factors increase their vulnerability to deaths, displacement, trafficking and re-recruitment, thus constructing their psychosocial reintegration consequences.

Likewise, the harsh realities of social stigma, which often lead to rejection, post-traumatic disorder, and mental illness, are significant in the psychosocial consequences of reintegration scholarship. Therefore, this study aims to bring attention to the underexplored area of self-reintegration and its impact on the lived experiences of former child soldiers to inform policy and practice.

Keywords: DDR, Child soldiers, Self-reintegration, Social exclusion, Lived Experiences.