(Human Rights Watch) – South Sudan’s army has used child soldiers during recent fighting against opposition forces in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said today. South Sudan’s former rebel forces, now the national army, had made tangible progress in ending its longtime practice of using child soldiers. But since the current armed conflict began in December 2013, both the government and opposition have recruited and deployed children in their forces. The government used child soldiers in renewed fighting in mid-August 2014 in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, and in the neighboring town of Rubkona, Human Rights Watch found. Ten people who fled the fighting told Human Rights Watch in Bentiu that they saw dozens of children in military uniform, armed with assault rifles, deployed with government soldiers and firing on opposition positions. On August 12, Human Rights Watch saw 15 soldiers who appeared to be children around the government’s Rubkona military base and airstrip.
