14, Feb 2018 | CJP Team

Al Jazeera reported that South Sudan’s civil war, which is currently in its fifth year, has seen almost all armed groups drafting children to be soldiers, according to rights organisations. According to UNICEF, the number of child soldiers in the country has been swelling since the beginning of the war, in 2013, in spite of all parties involved in the war having committed to end recruitment of child soldiers and freeing existing ones. Al Jazeera said that although almost 2,000 children have been demobilised over the last five years, others are taking their place. Earlier in February 2018, one of South Sudan’s armed groups, the National Liberation, released 300 child soldiers. The group’s Brigadier Abel Matthew said the children “were not really forced but the conditions back then forced them and all of us together”. The war has resulted in several thousand deaths, and the displacement of millions.