Former SPLA child soldiers returned home

Almost 3,500 children, who were taking part in Sudan’s civil war as soldiers as recently as five months ago, have returned to their communities and families in southern Sudan, with the assistance of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the agency reported on Wednesday. All but 70 of the 3,551 child soldiers, who were released by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in February 2001, have now been returned to their original home communities, according to a UNICEF press statement. The 70 remaining boys came from inaccessible areas or places of chronic instability, and were still being cared for at a camp near Rumbek, Lakes region [Al-Buhayrat], run by the organisation Samaritan’s Purse, it added. The children were demobilised by the SPLA in fulfilment of a pledge the rebel group had made to Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, during a visit to southern Sudan in October 2000. They were temporarily moved by the UN from the conflict zone of Bahr al-Ghazal into transit camps in safe areas, in an operation then criticised by the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The government had criticised the transportation of children from areas controlled by the SPLA “without the knowledge or consultation of the government of Sudan”, according to Sudanese media reports at the time. On Wednesday, Bellamy expressed her delight with the return home of the former child soldiers - some of whom had had military training without ever engaging in military actions, while others had been involved in combat, and experienced traumas. “These [returnee] children are among the lucky ones,” said Bellamy on Wednesday. “Their demobilisation was hard-won but decisive, their relocation on WFP planes was extraordinary, and their stay in the transit camps preparing to return home was rewarding for all of us,” she said. “I applaud the support of WFP, aid organisations, donors, and community leaders on the ground who gave their all to making this effort a success,” she added. [see press release at: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/] “We were very happy to be a partner in this ground-breaking operation,” Masood Hyder, Director of WFP’s Sudan Country Programme, added. “We rescheduled a number of activities so the relocation could happen as quickly and smoothly as possible,” he added. One of the children, 12 year-old Peter Mawien, was reported to have arrived to an emotional greeting from his cousins, aunt and uncle, who carried him home and rubbed ash on his arms, legs and face - a tradition believed to chase away evil spirits. “I’m so happy and excited to be home. I’ve been away for so long... I want to take up the pen and go to school to study. I will only have a future if I can get an education,” he said after his return. “The children were absorbed right back into their communities,” UNICEF Child Protection officer Ushari Mahmoud said. “We worked closely with community leaders, and it paid off. This part of southern Sudan has an ordered social hierarchy where every family is known, and we’ve worked within this system to make sure the children get home as quickly as possible.” Approximately 200 of the returnees have not gone back to their immediate families, either because they were orphans with no close living relative, or because their families have been displaced, according to the UN agency. Those children have been taken in by communities and allocated to families by chiefs, as is usual under traditional provisions for the care of vulnerable children. This “community fostering” reflected both the Dinka community’s view - as captured in their saying: “A child is a child of everyone” - and the concern of humanitarian workers not to put children into institutions, according to UNICEF (Southern Sudan) spokesman in Nairobi, Martin Dawes. “Our latest figures are that 96 percent of the children have gone back either to their family or to people who were caring for them before... That is a very high percentage and we’re very happy with that,” Dawes told IRIN on Wednesday. While in the transit camps, 72 of the better educated young Sudanese were given training to work as primary school teaching assistants, according to UNICEF. Forty others were trained as water pump mechanics, others received training in food cultivation, and about 90 were given special teaching to promote better hygiene, sanitation and HIV/AIDS awareness. In the course of the transit phase, over 490 people worked with the children - including UNICEF staff, specially employed teachers, doctors, health and care staff, and NGO workers - at a ratio of one responsible adult for every seven children, Dawes added. UNICEF and its partner organisations - such as International Rescue Committee (IRC), Radda Barnen and Save the Children (UK) - would continue to work to improve conditions in the children’s home areas, with additional resources allocated for education, health and water, according to Wednesday’s press statement. Nor was this the end of the operation, according to the head of UNICEF operations in southern Sudan, Dr Sharad Sapra. “We need to focus on supporting the communities these children have gone home to, both to ease the general suffering and to make it less likely children will ever be recruited again,” he said. “And there are still some 4,000 children in the SPLA awaiting demobilisation. We have to learn from this experience and begin working on getting those children home too,” Sapra added. Carol Bellamy also spoke of the hopeful message that this return put out, two weeks before world leaders are scheduled to meet in New York, USA, for the UN General Assembly’s Special Summit on Children. “This proves once again that the willing cooperation of people of influence can bring an end to the appalling use of children as soldiers,” she said. “Let’s hope these children and young people get the full fresh start they deserve – and that world leaders are inspired by this example of action for children, even in the midst of conflict.”