KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- About 200 former child combatants left a Maoist camp in Nepal this week, officials said.
The children worked as cooks, messengers and porters for the Maoist People's Liberation Army, CNN reported. They are to be provided with rehabilitation services, although the details have not been worked out.
A United Nations report in 2007 found more than 4,000 members of the Maoist military force were "disqualified" because they were younger than 18 or had joined after the end of the 10-year guerrilla war in 2006. About 3,000 were disqualified by age.
Once all minors have been out of the Maoist army for six months to a year, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist can be considered for removal from the U.N. list of groups that recruit and use child soldiers.
As part of the peace process, officials in Nepal are trying to determine how to integrate almost 20,000 Maoist fighters into the country's security forces.
