Many female fighters choose not to demobilise because they see few benefits in doing so.Young female fighters have sometimes been denied access to official DDR processes because the international community does not recognise them as ‘real’ fighters.Yet DDR programmes in their current form are not effective in identifying, registering, demobilising and reintegrating female fighters. In the context of wars in Africa, the international community often presses for DDR. In many conflict areas, official disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes are the favoured means of achieving peace. There is also limited recognition of the skills and strengths that women may have developed in the armed forces and during war and opportunities to support gender equality in post-conflict environments have not been seized. Assumptions about women’s innate non-participation in war prevent their specific needs from being addressed. In the various armed conflicts in Africa, young women are participants and carry guns alongside their male comrades. Programmes to disarm, demobilise and re-integrate former fighters need to be adapted to local contexts and designed to meet the needs of female ex-fighters. This report from the Nordic Africa Institute calls for a broader understanding of women’s roles and participation in armed conflict in Africa. What role do young women play in contemporary African wars? Mainstream thinking on war and conflict sees women as passive and peaceful and men as active and aggressive.
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