Boys in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region are increasingly at risk of being recruited into armed groups, while sexual violence against girls is unabated, despite growing official awareness, a top United Nations envoy said on Thursday.
Following visits to Darfur and the South Sudanese capital of Juba and meetings with top Sudanese government representatives, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, told reporters in Khartoum that while Sudanese officials have made promises to reduce threats to children, little progress has been seen on the ground.
"There is recognition in Sudan at the official level of the problems of child recruitment and sexual violence," Coomaraswamy said. "[Sudan] has agreed to frameworks and they have agreed to commitments. However, we are concerned that there's not enough implementation and that the results are not showing on the ground."
Children are being increasingly recruited by both rebel factions and the Sudanese army, she said.
"Independent monitors have pointed out to us through verified data that child recruitment is increasing in Darfur and that all parties to the conflict engage in child recruitment," Coomaraswamy said.
The UN envoy said she was pleased to have secured agreements by rebels and the government to allow UN audits of military encampments to ensure no children are present.
Coomaraswamy said that child recruitment in southern Sudan was on the wane, following the signing in 2005 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to end 21 years of war.
However, she said programmes aimed at reintegrating former child soldiers into society had faced difficulties.
Thousands of children were recruited into the SPLA during the civil war and some former child soldiers are struggling to readjust to life outside the military.
"We found that reintegration programmes of child soldiers are not working as well as we would like," Coomaraswamy said. "What happens is children are demobilised, but they come back to the armed camps because they feel alienated in their communities."
She also stressed that more needs to be done to end sexual violence against girls in Darfur. "There is recognition of this issue at the national level," she said. "However, the situation on the ground does not seem to have improved. Medical reports show that there are high rates of sexual violence."
The UN envoy called for a more potent security framework to protect women and children.
At present, the African Union (AU) is struggling to keep a semblance of stability in Darfur, a region the size of France, with only about 7,000 troops. Sudan has resisted plans to have a UN-mandated force sent into Darfur to reinforce AU troops.
Violence in Darfur has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced at least two million more since 2003.
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