Military service for women in Colombia

• Colombia has allowed women to join the army for the first time in 25 years.

• Last month, 1,296 women were recruited into the Colombian army.

• Colombia has long had compulsory military service for males aged 18 to 24.

• The army deploys these youths to man military bases, infrastructure security and administrative tasks while its professional soldiers take on drug-trafficking gangs and insurgent groups.

• The authorities have allowed women in the same age group to voluntarily join the army this year.

• It is part of an effort to increase the share of women in the military.

• There are about two million soldiers in the Colombian army, of which about one percent are women.