Shearer frees child soldiers
Former Labour leader heads UN project in Sudan
The United Nations mission in South Sudan — headed by former Labour leader David Shearer — released more than 300 former child soldiers in the city of Yambio on Wednesday.
“Children should not be carrying guns and killing each other. They should be playing, learning, having fun with friends, protected and cherished by the adults around them,” Shearer said.
A total of 700 children, including 220 girls, have been screened and registered for release in phases — 563 from the South Sudan National Liberation Movement and 137 associated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army In-Opposition.
The first phase of the release project involved 311 young people and was marked at a ceremony in Yambio yesterday. They were officially disarmed and provided with civilian A child soldier waits to be freed, while the gift of books and pens symbolises the new life awaiting the former fighters. clothes as well as medical screenings. Eighty-seven of them were girls. “This is the first time so many young women have been involved in a release like this in South Sudan,” Shearer said. “They will have endured suffering, including sexual abuse. It is vital that they receive the support they need to rejoin their communities and that they are welcomed home by family and friends without any sense of stigma.” The children will have counselling support as part of the reintegration programme. The Shearerled UN mission has been organising the project to release the children for more than six months, including providing peacekeeping troops to escort religious leaders into remote bush areas to make contact and negotiate with the armed groups.
It has also worked closely with other key partners such as Unicef, state and local authorities and community groups.
Shearer paid groups.
“I would like to pay particular credit to religious leaders who travelled into conflict zones and risked their own lives to bring these children to safety.”
The children with relatives in the area will be reunited with their families, while others will be placed in interim care centres until their families can be traced.
They will also be provided with three months’ worth of food assistance and with vocational training and age-specific education services in schools and accelerated learning centres.
Shearer said the challenge ahead was to ensure the young people had the support to undertake training, find jobs and access the opportunities that would let them reach their full potential.
In spite of the release, about 19,000 children continue to be used by armed forces and groups more than four years after conflict erupted in December 2013. tribute to these