UN officials on Tuesday said that they had secured the release of 3,000 child soldiers in South Sudan, calling it one of the largest demobilizations of children.
The first 280 children, aged between 11 and 17, turned in their weapons and took off their fatigues on Tuesday in the village of Gumuruk in war-ravaged South Sudan. Many of the children have never been to school, fighting instead for years for a rebel militia.
“These children have been forced to do and see things no child should ever experience,” UNICEF South Sudan representative Jonathan Veitch said.
Photo: Reuters
UNICEF officials said that over the next several weeks, the rest of the children would disarm, bringing a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape.
South Sudan has been upended by civil war for more than a year, with thousands of civilians killed and more than 1 million displaced. The oil-rich nation, one of the world’s least developed, won independence from Sudan in 2011 and has received billions of US dollars in Western aid, especially from the US.
However, in December 2013, intense clashes broke out between longstanding rivals in the government, quickly setting off a broader conflict between South Sudan’s two largest ethnic groups, the Dinka and the Nuer, after their leaders began feuding.
Since then, international mediators have tried repeatedly to broker a peace agreement. The mediators have suggested forming a power-sharing government between South Sudan’s current leaders, who are dominated by Dinka politicians and the Nuer commanders, who staged an armed insurrection.
However, the two sides remain distrustful and skirmishes continue to break out.
“I don’t have a lot of hope in the process,” said one Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The rebel leaders sign agreements one day, then discredit them the next, the Western official said.
“Nobody’s interested in developing the country,” he said. “Look at the place — education, health, roads. What has been done? This is all about power.”
The children who disarmed on Tuesday were part of yet another ethnic group, the Murle, which has also been dragged into the conflict, first as rebels, then joining the government.
UNICEF said it was trying to reunify the children with their families and that it would then introduce them to education and training programs.
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