Women: Africa’s ignored combatants

In many disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) initiatives around the world, “women combatants are often invisible and their needs are overlooked,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has observed. While the participation of women in combat has been minimal in some of Africa’s recent conflicts, in others, as in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women have taken part in significant numbers.