MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – The number of child soldiers, fighting in South Sudan has risen to almost 10,000, UNICEF chief for child protection in the country Fatuma Ibrahim told Anadolu Agency Wednesday.
“Now the figures have reached 10,000… around 70 percent or so are [with] the white army [Nuer White Army], where thousands of these youths are being recruited," Ibrahim said, referring to Riek Machar's rebel forces.
Violence erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his ex-deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup. Tens of thousands have been killed during the South Sudanese Civil War.
Previously, UNICEF estimated that 9,000 children had been recruited into armed forces and groups by both sides of the conflict.
UNICEF official website informs that “under both international and South Sudanese national law, the forcible or voluntary recruitment of persons under the age of 18, whether as a member of a regular army or of an informal militia, is prohibited.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs the military use of children, taking direct part in hostilities in Africa accounts for half of the world’s child soldiers.
