Watchlist

Considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of addressing violations against children affected by the armed conflict in Southern Sudan. This is mostly connected to the major political developments occurring in the South, with the signature of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ending decades of war between North and South Sudan, the subsequent inclusion of the Southern Sudanese representatives in a Government of National Unity and the independence referendum held in Southern Sudan in January 2011. Independence and the active and formal participation in political and social reconstruction in Southern Sudan has led the Sudan’s People Liberation Army/Movement (SPLM/A) to engage in sustained child demobilization efforts and in significant legal reform to stop recruitment of child soldiers since 2009. Children are however still present in their ranks as they voluntarily return to barracks after demobilization because they have access to food and assistance there. This raises concerns over the reintegration of demobilized children. Despite the peace agreement and recent political developments, inter-communal remains a problem in many areas of Southern Sudan. Frequent upsurges lead to deaths and abduction of children and there has recently been an increasing trend of sexual violence in the context of such inter-communal violence. In addition to this endogenous violence, there are frequent incursions of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from Northern Uganda into Southern Sudan, resulting in deaths and abduction of children for the purposes of forceful recruitment and, in the case of girls, for use as “wives”. Joint operations by the SPLA and the Ugandan armed forces have led to the rescue of some children abducted by the LRA, but incursions and violence prevail.