Despite many efforts on the part of the international community to stop the phenomenon of child soldiers, hundreds of thousands of children are forced to wage war. Research shows that as a result of their military experience, these children often suffer from diverse psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The present study tries to better understand the psychological process that allows these young militaries to mentally survive to the experience of war. To this end, 78 interviews were conducted with 22 ex-child soldiers. In addition, data were collected through participating observation, which was realized during a three month stay in a transit center for child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The data from the interviews and the observations were subject to a qualitative analysis by consensus. This analysis reveals a specific element that seems to play a considerable protective role in these children’s avoidance of trauma, that is the use of magical thinking. Specifically two anti-traumatic components emerge namely magical thinking personified by the weapon and what the children refer to as « charms ». The paper explores these phenomena and tries to explain their efficiency through the influence of the group and the leader. It also considers desubjectivation as a consequence of the use of magical thinking