N'DJAMENA, Chad (CNN) -- Children as young as 13 are being forced into combat by Sudanese rebels who take the youngsters from squalid refugee camps in neighboring Chad, CNN has learned.

In some cases, Chadian guards look the other way as rebels make children join their ranks, local people say.

Abdul, 16, told CNN he had no choice: "When I saw them beating some of the people, I was afraid. That's why I couldn't refuse to go.

"I'm not a volunteer -- I was forced," the boy said, visibly scared. (Watch children tell how they were coerced into combat -- 9:35)

The camps are supposed to offer shelter from the conflict across the border in Sudan's Darfur region, where 180,000 people have been killed and 2 million others forced from their homes in fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government-backed Arab militias known as janjaweed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/05/17/chad.recruitment/index.html