UN warns future of a generation is ‘on the brink’
NAIROBI, Kenya — More than 1 million children have fled South Sudan’s civil war, two U.N. agencies said Monday, part of the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.
Another 1 million South Sudanese children are displaced within the country, having left their homes due to the civil war, the U.N.’s child and refugee agencies said in a statement.
“The future of a generation is truly on the brink,” said Leila Pakkala, UNICEF’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa. “The horrifying fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this conflict has been for the country’s most vulnerable.”
The civil war has worsened South Sudan’s ethnic divisions, and U.N. officials have said parts of the country are experiencing ethnic cleansing and are at risk of genocide.
Roughly 62 percent of refugees from South Sudan are children, according to the U.N. statement, and more than 75,000 children are alone or without their families. Roughly 1.8 million people have fled South Sudan in all.
“No refugee crisis today worries me more than South Sudan,” said Valentin Tapsoba, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ Africa bureau director. “That refugee children are becoming the defining face of this emergency is incredibly troubling.”
For children still living in South Sudan, the situation is grim. Nearly three quarters of children are out of school, according to the U.N. statement, which is the highest out-ofschool population in the world. An official famine was declared in two counties of South Sudan in February, and hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of starvation in the absence of food aid, according to the U.N.
More than 1,000 children have been killed or wounded in the East African nation’s civil war. Both sides have pledged not to recruit child soldiers, but have ignored their promises. A U.N. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that opposition groups are recruiting inside U.N. displacement sites.
South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013 and has killed tens of thousands of people.
Government forces “continue to target civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict,” the U.S., United Kingdom, Norway and European Union said Monday, one of the most critical statements by foreign governments against the East African nation as it experiences a sharp rise in ethnic attacks.