Hidden in plain sight: girls associated with armed groups
11 February 2026Sandra Maignant is co-lead of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Actions’ Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups task force.
Girls associated with armed forces and armed groups remain one of the most overlooked populations in conflict settings. While global attention often focuses on boys recruited into combat, girls’ experiences are frequently hidden, and shaped by gender norms that render their roles invisible and their suffering unacknowledged.
According to the 2025 report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, 7,402 cases of child recruitment and use were verified in 2024, with girls representing approximately 25 per cent of the total. Yet this figure is widely understood to be an underestimation. Many girls are never identified, counted or supported.
Research funded by Global Affairs Canada and led by Plan International, with support from UNICEF and the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, sheds light on this hidden reality. Drawing on 94 key informant interviews across the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan, the findings reveal how girls’ association with armed groups is shaped by poverty, displacement, insecurity, and entrenched gender norms, and how these same forces continue to undermine their release and reintegration.
Girls’ lives shaped by exploitation and silence
Across contexts, girls are rarely associated with combat roles. Instead, they are used as cooks, porters, domestic workers, or forced “wives”, and are frequently subjected to sexual violence and exploitation. These overlapping abuses expose girls to compounded harm, while simultaneously making them harder to identify as children associated with armed forces and armed groups.
In CAR, cycles of intercommunal violence have heightened these risks. In 2024, 331 cases of recruitment and use were verified, including 93 girls. Girls are often abducted and subjected to domestic labour, sexual violence and forced marriage. One key informant noted the link between recruitment methods and risk: girls who are forcibly abducted are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
Even when release is negotiated, girls are often excluded. Commanders may submit lists of children for release that omit girls entirely, claiming that “girls are not combatants”. This denial reflects persistent gender bias and a limited understanding of international child protection standards.
For some girls, formal release feels too dangerous. As one respondent from CAR explained, “If it’s public, it’s complicated.” Girls fear being “too identified” within their communities and may disengage quietly instead, cutting themselves off from formal support.
The consequences can be devastating. A child protection actor in CAR described the case of a 12-year-old girl who became pregnant following multiple sexual assaults and was unable to identify the father of her child. Her trauma required long-term, specialised psychosocial care to support recovery and reintegration.
Stigma as a second punishment
In the DRC, where 2,365 cases of recruitment and use were verified in 2024 – including 714 girls – many girls leave armed groups through self-demobilisation rather than formal processes. This often means they are classified simply as “vulnerable children”, rather than recognised as CAAFAG, limiting their access to support.
Stigma plays a decisive role. As one informant explained, “They are self-demobilised and the culture weighs on them. We consider them as the wife of a military, and they have less chances to remarry.” Girls returning with children face the greatest barriers. Another key informant observed: “Girls who leave come with many challenges. They have children, which reinforces rejection by the community.”
In South Sudan, similar patterns emerge. Girls are often abducted while carrying out daily tasks such as collecting firewood or fetching water. During verification missions, they are frequently hidden in soldiers’ houses. As one respondent explained, “It is easier to secure the release of boys; most of the girls are taken as wives. When you go for verification, they are in the houses of soldiers, it’s hard to spot them.”
In one case, a girl identified during a visit to military barracks could not be released because her commander was watching the interview and later refused authorisation. Only intervention by the State Ministry of Social Welfare secured her freedom.
What works, and what’s missing
Despite these challenges, the research also highlights promising practices. The presence of female child protection officers during verification missions has repeatedly proved critical. As one key informant in DRC noted, “Having women in the verification teams helped us identify girls who were otherwise hidden”.
Holistic reintegration approaches – combining psychosocial care, education, livelihoods, and foster care – have shown positive results, particularly when girls are supported together to reduce isolation. In South Sudan, faith-based organisations offering education alongside counselling and life skills training have helped girls rebuild their lives.
Relocation has also emerged as a vital option for girls facing severe stigma, allowing them to begin again in safer environments.
Yet major gaps remain. Reintegration kits often lack dignity items or baby supplies. Long-term psychosocial support is underfunded. Community stigma persists, and funding cuts have led to the closure of essential child protection programmes across all three contexts.
As one informant in CAR put it plainly: “We design programmes for boys. Girls with babies need childcare and dignity kits, but these are rarely provided.”
Acting for girls
Girls associated with armed forces and armed groups are not invisible by accident. They are rendered invisible by stigma, gender norms, and systems that fail to look for them. Addressing this requires deliberate, gender-sensitive identification strategies, sustained funding, and community engagement that recognises girls as victims of grave violations, not as perpetrators or sources of shame. Without this change, girls will continue to remain hidden in plain sight.
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