UNICEF returns former child soldiers

More than 3,500 children, who were demobilised in February by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have returned to their communities and families in southern Sudan, UNICEF reported on Wednesday. All but 70 of the 3,551 child soldiers, who were temporarily moved by the UN from the conflict zone of Bahr al-Ghazal to transit camps in safe areas after their release in February, have been returned to their home communities; the others, who come from inaccessible areas or places of chronic instability, were still being cared for at a Samaritan’s Purse camp near Rumbek, Lakes region [Al-Buhayrat], it stated. “The children were absorbed right back into their communities,” UNICEF Child Protection officer Ushari Mahmoud said. “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.”

“Two weeks before world leaders meet in New York for a UN (General Assembly) 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,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said on Wednesday of the Sudanese return operation. Dr Sharad Sapra, head of UNICEF operations in southern Sudan, added that follow-up interventions were still required. “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,” he added. [for more details, see separate IRIN story of 29 August headlined “SUDAN: Former SPLA child soldiers returned home”]