JUBA, South Sudan — Just months ago, the signing of a U.S.-backed peace deal provided a road map to end South Sudan’s brutal civil war. But the conflict has raged on — and aid agencies say even more child soldiers are being drawn into the fighting.
About 16,000 children have been recruited by government and rebel forces since the war here began in 2013, according to the United Nations. They are foot soldiers and cooks and cleaners, boys and girls as young as 9. Many were taken from their homes and schools and forced onto the battlefield.
“We’ve seen huge increases in these violations throughout the entire year,” said Ettie Higgins, the UNICEF deputy representative in South Sudan.
In rare cases when children are released, UNICEF officials say, they have treated boys with bullet wounds and deep psychological scars. Scores of them have lost track of their families.
When leaders of the South Sudanese government and the rebels signed the peace agreement in August, both sides claimed that they had stopped using child soldiers. But the cease-fire was immediately and repeatedly violated. There were actually thousands of children still on the battlefield, according to Western officials.
The United States named South Sudan this year as one of eight countries that violated the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. That would normally cause U.S. military aid to be blocked. But President Barack Obama issued a partial waiver.
“The way the United States government has ignored the intent of the Child Soldier Prevention Act throws into question our commitment as a country to keep children safe,” said Jessica Bousquette, the policy adviser for child protection for World Vision International, a U.S.-based Christian humanitarian organization. “The administration says it does not condone the use of children as soldiers, yet it continues to provide military assistance to countries, like South Sudan, who we know are recruiting or using child soldiers.”
U.S. officials counter that the bulk of the approved funding goes toward monitoring the cease-fire through a regional force that includes South Sudanese military officials. The U.S. government helped shepherd South Sudan through its independence from Sudan in 2011, and has spent billions on the country’s development.
In much of the country, the war has been unrelenting, with tens of thousands killed and both adult and children civilians targeted. U.N. officials reported in June that attackers in northern Unity state had castrated boys and left them to bleed to death, and raped and killed young girls. Last month, a report from the African Union said that security forces, which are dominated by the Dinkas, had forced Nuers to eat the flesh and drink the blood of dead bodies.
The use of child soldiers is made possible, experts say, by the chaos that has enveloped the country. About 1,100 schools have shuttered, according to UNICEF.
