At a new “laying down of the guns” ceremony on Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 112 boys and 95 girl child soldiers were returned to their families in areas outside the town of Yambio.
More than 200 child soldiers were released by armed groups in war-torn South Sudan, part of a series of releases that will see almost 1,000 children freed in the coming months.
An estimated 19,000 children are believed to be in armed forces amid the country’s 5-year civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. South Sudan has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world, according to the U.N.
At the “laying down of the guns” ceremony, 112 boys and 95 girls were returned to their families in areas outside the town of Yambio on Tuesday. It was the first community release of child soldiers where children were directly reunited with their parents and siblings instead of first going to institutions.
“It’s about sending a clear message that children should not be in the army,” UNICEF’s representative in South Sudan, Mahimbo Mdoe, told The Associated Press. He called on all of South Sudan’s armed factions to release all children.
The release comes weeks ahead of the young country’s third round of peace talks, scheduled to be held at the end of the month in neighboring Ethiopia. A ceasefire signed on Dec. 24 was broken hours later and another round of talks were inconclusive.
To date, the U.N. has released more than 2,000 child soldiers, yet despite progress and the government’s commitment to halt the recruitment of children, advocacy groups say it continues.
Source: 200 Child Soldiers Freed In S. Sudan, But Problem Continues
