SPLA-IO accused of forcibly recruiting child soldiers in Rubkona County

January 24, 2020 Newsbeat

One of the child soldiers spotted in the middle of marching soldiers in South Sudan (Photo: Supplied)

January 25th, 2020 (SSNN)—South Sudan’s main armed opposition faction, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – IO has been accused of forcibly recruiting children into armed forces, in Rubkona County, Northern Liech State.

According to State Information Minister David Gai, the ongoing forced recruitment of child soldiers has forced residents to flee the areas to avoid further enlistment by the opposition.

“Now areas like Nhial-Diu, which is part of Greater Rubkona, are almost empty because those communities have fled their homes to avoid the exercise,” Gai was quoted as said.

For his part, the SPLA-IO’s Deputy Military Spokesperson, Lam Paul Gabriel strongly denied the alleged recruitment of child soldiers, saying that these are bad allegations emerging at times when the Parties are preparing for peace and reconciliation.

“To be sincere, this is a very bad allegation coming when we are heading towards the best moments. You cannot recruit when you are going for peace. What you do, instead, is to screen those forces and send those who are young to their homes for school.

Lam explained that the time for recruiting fighters into armed forces is already over, so all they do is demobilize the elderly from military service, so that they can return to their homes.

“Those who are elderly and want to disarm and demobilise and reintegrate, we allow them too. Why would we recruit when the agreement doesn’t allow us?” Lam questioned.

On Thursday, the head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer, remarked that, although the level of insecurity has reduced dramatically across of the country, the potential for another conflict may not be far away.

“Continued NAS operations in Central Equatoria have impacted civilians. There is also a worrying escalation of political violence in Maiwut forcing 8,000 civilians to take refuge in Ethiopia and displacing another 11,000 internally. And a number of agencies are reporting forced recruitment in different parts of the country, most recently around Rubkona. It is an issue we are monitoring closely and will soon report on,” said Shearer.