Cross-line breakthrough in return of child abductees

Five child abductees have been returned to their families in the first ever cross-line flight from government- to rebel-held areas, Save the Children Fund (UK) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

"The first-ever flight for abducted children from the government side to a rebel area opens the possibility of bringing many more children back home," Wendy Fenton, Country Representative of SCF-UK, southern Sudan, said in a joint statement by SCF-UK and UNICEF.

The five boys, aged between 11 and 17, were flown form Khartoum to the town of Malwal Kon, northern Bahr al-Ghazal, on Wednesday 1 May, and were accompanied by a staff member from SCF-UK's Khartoum office.

"This is a major breakthrough," said Kate Halff of SCF-UK, Khartoum.

Most of the abductions of ethnic Dinka women and children are carried out by Murahilin (nomadic) militias, frequently made up of members of the Baqqarah tribes (Rizayqat and Misariyyah Humr), raiding villages in northern Bahr al-Ghazal, according to humanitarian sources.

The timing of raids often appeared to be associated with the dry season movement of a government military train moving from the north near Babanusah south to the strategic town of Wau and back, sources said.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, Gerhart Baum, has highlighted the negative role of nomadic Arab tribes (mainly the Baqqarah, Zaghawah and Misariyyah) from which the government has formed Murahilin militias, deeply implicated in abductions.

Fenton told IRIN that although the returns represented a breakthrough, it would be preferable in future to return children to their families by land.

"Air flight is now an option but we would like to be able to do this by land, if both sides create the appropriate, peaceful conditions," she said.

A US-led eminent persons group on slavery, abduction and forced servitude, established in March, has been asked to recommend steps that can be taken by the conflict parties to end such abuses. Led by Penn Kemble, a senior scholar at the US-based human rights organisation Freedom House, the group is expected to report to US Secretary of State Colin Powell after its second trip to northern and southern Sudan, planned for mid-May.

It was hoped that last week's cross-line flight and release would lead to many more people being allowed to go home, UNICEF and SCF-UK stated.

The government in Khartoum has repeatedly denied that slavery exists in Sudan, while admitting that there is a problem of some tribal militias abducting civilians. Slavery was officially abolished in Sudan in 1924, according to humanitarian sources.

UNICEF, SCF-UK and the Sudanese government's Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC) believe that up to 6,000 southern Sudanese children and women may still be held against their will in government-held northern Sudan, the statement said.

To date, CEAWC has identified about 1,200 possible cases of abduction - of which 700 have been reunified with their families and about 500 are awaiting the identification of families or communities, humanitarian sources told IRIN.

On 5 February, Ahmad al-Mufti, a former chairman of CEAWC and recently reappointed to the body, drafted a one-year provisional plan of action to eradicate abduction, sources said.

"The challenge now is to put a stop once and for all to raiding, and return many more children home, finally ending a terrible cycle of abuse," Thomas Ekvall, UNICEF representative and the UN's acting Resident Coordinator, said in Friday's statement.