South Sudan armed groups 'recruited 100 child soldiers'

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan

At least 100 children were recruited as soldiers by armed groups in South Sudan in November alone despite efforts by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to remove them from the frontlines, the UN body said Thursday.

“Since November, the UN has documented at least 50 children who were abducted and recruited in the Greater Upper Nile region, with unverified reports that an additional 50 children may have been recruited in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal region,” UNICEF said in a statement.

Three years after fighting first erupted in South Sudan, children continue to be recruited by armed forces, with 1,300 children recruited in 2016, it said. This brings to more than 17,000 the total number of children used in the conflict since 2013.

“Since the first day of this conflict, children have been the ones most devastatingly affected by the violations,” UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala, said. “Now, as the fighting intensifies and despite repeated pledges by all to end child recruitment – children are once again being targeted,” Gharagozloo-Pakkala said.

Between 2015 and October 2016, about 1,932 child soldiers were part of the UNICEF demobilization and reintegration program.

UNICEF condemned the worrying increase of child victims in the ongoing conflict that has rocked South Sudan since fighting broke out in December 2013 between the South Sudanese armed forces and the armed opposition loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and 2.4 million people displaced from their homes.