“They made me kill. ” Emmanuele looked at the ground . “If I refused to go to the front line , they beat me .They treated me like an animal.”
Emmanuele was just 15 when he joined a rebel army group n Congo ,because of poverty. “I had no food and they said they would give me some ,” he said.
But he began to regret his decision after killing people for the first time . “I was forced to shoot, but it was I who killed people ,”he said while crying . He desperately wanted to leave but did not know how .
Emmanuele is among about 30,000 child soldiers in the country ,and there are 10 times more n Africa. Many African countries have economic problems and civil wars break out quite often.
It is common to see kids as young as seven dressed in camouflage uniforms with weapons on their shoulders .They were forced to join the army or joined in the hope of escaping hunger.
Now the suffering of these children is in the public consciousness again. On June 11, the world’s richest countries decided to write off US $ 40 billion of debt owed by the 18 poorest nations, 14 in Africa.
This is the biggest debt reduction in history. Long-term aid will be discussed a C 8 summit next month.
The deal was generally welcomed in Africa. “It means we can have more money to keep stability and improve people’s living conditions,” said Mozambique’s Prime Minister, Luisa Diogo.
However, there remains much concern that the deal is far from enough . Experts say the West should stop getting involved in the countries’ politics and help keep their stability.
Permanent development is also said to be key for the reduction of poverty in Africa. “The poor countries can only develop when they have access to advanced technology and can sell their products worldwide without the current trade barriers, ”said American analyst.

“他们要我杀人。” Emmanuele边看着地边说，“如果我拒绝上前线，他们就会揍我，对待我象对待动物一样。”
由于贫穷，Emmanuele 才15岁就参加了刚果的一个叛军组织。“我没饭吃，他们告诉我他们会给我吃的。”他说。
但是当他杀第一次杀完人后，他开始后悔自己当初的决定。“虽然我被逼着开枪，但是毕竟是我杀的人，”他哭着说。他极其想逃离那里但是不知道如何做。
Emmanuele是这个国家里30000个童子军中的一员。这个数字是非洲平均值的10倍。许多非洲国家有经济困境，因此战争经常暴发。
在这里，看到7岁的孩子，穿着类似军装一样的制服，肩上扛着武器是司空见惯的事情。他们被逼着去参军或者幻想着能不再饥饿参军。
现在这些孩子们所遭受的苦难已再次引起公众的良知注意。6月11日，世界最富有的国家决定免除18国家的共计400亿美元的债务，18个国家中有14个在非洲。
这是史上最大的一笔债务减免。长期的资助计划将会在下个月的八国峰会中讨论。
这笔交易在非洲广受拥护。“它意味着我们能有更多的钱来保持稳定和改善人民生活水平，” 莫桑比克总统Luisa Diogo说。
然而，人们依然担心这笔钱远远不够。
专家们指出西方世界应该停止干预这些非洲国家的政治事物，应该帮助他们保持稳定。
人们认为可持续发展也是非洲减少贫困的关键。美国分析家指出：“只有当贫穷国家有途径发展技术和在全世界范围内没有贸易壁垒的出售自己的商品时，他们才能得到发展。”