CRINMAIL 164:

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Children and armed conflict: focus on Sudan and South Sudan

Since Sudan gained its independence in 1956 at the end of the joint British Egyptian rule over the country, it has been ruled by a succession of unstable civilian and military governments. Unresolved constitutional tensions with the South flared up into full-scale civil war between 1955 and 2005.

Sudan, once the largest and one of the most geographically diverse states in Africa split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence. More than 98 per cent of voters were in favour of the separation, making the Republic of South Sudan the newest nation in the world.

Sudan has long been torn by conflict and has the highest number of internally displaced persons in the world - an estimated 6 million people are displaced. Two rounds of north-south civil war costed the lives of more than 2 million people, and the continuing conflict in the Western region of Darfur has driven 2.7 million people away from their homes and killed more than 200,000.

Omar El Bashir, the current president of Sudan who came to power after a military coup in 1989, faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Sudan has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (3 August 1990), the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (26 July 2005) and accessed the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (2 November 2004).

South Sudan has yet to ratify the Convention and its optional protocols.

Children have been the most affected by the conflict in South Sudan and in Darfur and the Sudanese authorities have so far failed to implement any legislation aimed to protect those children. Fourteen parties in Sudan and two parties in South Sudan are listed on the UN Secretary-General’s list of shame of parties who recruit, kill or maim children, commit sexual violence and attack schools and hospitals (read more on the list of shame and the office of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict).

Armed groups and forces recruit and abduct children (10,000 children remain associated with armed groups and forces) and conduct attacks on civilians, including children. Sexual violence against women and girls is used as a weapon of war. Thirty-six per cent of girls marry before the age of 18, female genital mutilation and corrupting affect 68 per cent of women and girls - mostly in the north of Sudan. Only 39 per cent of children have their births registered. Read Sudan's full list of persistent violations of children's rights.

The conflict in Darfur

The conflict began in Darfur, western Sudan, in 2003. It was driven by a range of factors, including perceptions that the west of the country was being marginalised and growing conflict over the areas’ resources.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) began attacking government targets in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs. The central government was arming the Arab Janjaweed militia. The population in Darfur says the Janjaweed patrol outside the camps and men are killed and women raped if they venture too far in search of firewood or water.

The UN estimates that between 200,000 and 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the start of the conflict. Some 4.7 million people are currently directly affected by the conflict, out of a total population of around 6.2 million. In 2008 alone, 310,000 people were displaced, or newly displaced - bringing the current total displacement to 2.7 million.

Half of those affected by the conflict are children; of these, nearly 700,000 have grown up knowing nothing but the conflict.

Some 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad. Most of whom are still camped along a 600 km (372 mile) stretch of the border and remain vulnerable to attacks from the Sudan side.

Chad's eastern areas have a similar ethnic make up to Darfur and the violence has spilled over the border area, with the neighbours accusing one another of supporting each other's rebel groups. However, cross border attacks have stopped since the signing of a peace agreement in 2010.

Darfur's conflict has moved into a new phase recently with the Khartoum government increasingly relying on non-Arab militias to attack civilians and rebels in the east of the troubled region.

In 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the president Omar Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity. After that decision, the president banned several aid agencies from operating in Northern Sudan.

The conflict in South Sudan

An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese people voted to secede in the January 2011 referendum.

Since South Sudan’s independence, continuing disputes with Sudan have led to increased tension and conflict between both countries mostly over oil issues and the three disputed areas of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei. Inside South Sudan, fighting between rival groups in Jonglei state has left hundreds of people dead and some 100,000 displaced since independence.

The referendum for the residents of the border region of Abyei to decide whether to join north or south has been delayed over voter eligibility. The conflict is rooted in a dispute over land between farmers of the pro-South Sudan Dinka Ngod people and cattle-herding Misseriya Arab tribesmen.

The conflict in the South Kordofan border zone is between the largely Christian and pro-SPLA Nuba people and northern government forces.

Read the full summary here.

More than 20 children killed in government jets blast town

UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG), Ms. Leila Zerrougui, expressed serious concern over the killing and maiming of children in Syria, particularly by Syrian Government forces.

In the last few days, Syrian Government jets intensified airstrikes on residential areas, particularly in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, killing and injuring dozens of civilians. In one such attack on Maaret al-Numan village, two residential buildings and a mosque where women and children were taking refuge, were destroyed; reportedly killing more than 20 children. Read the SRSG’s statement.

Following the attack on Maaret al-Numan village, an AFP correspondent saw at least 32 bodies wrapped in white sheets in a makeshift field hospital, including six children and many mutilated corpses, as well as plastic bags marked “body parts.”

One child was decapitated, the correspondent said. The body of a second was pulled from the rubble while still on his bicycle.

In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay appealed for the Security Council to settle their differences over Syria. She urged “the Security Council to speak with one voice […], the longer this vicious conflict continues, the more lethal it becomes not just for Syria's own long-term future, but also for the entire region...”. Read more.

The Database of the Syrian Revolution’s Martyrs reports 3058 children killed since the start of the uprising 19 months ago and an overall death toll of more than 37,000 thousand.

Child recruitment

According to the Associated Press (AP), Islamists across northern Mali have recruited and paid for as many as 1,000 children from rural towns and villages.

UNICEF reported at least 175 children being recruited in northern Mali this year, with parents receiving between 500,000 francs (about $1,000) and 600,000 francs (about $1,200) per child.

Children are being used by all armed groups operating in northern Mali, but the Islamists, including a militant group known as Ansar Dine, have been among the most prominent recruiters, according to residents and human rights groups.

Since a military coup in March that overthrew the country's president, Islamists have taken over the north, and nearly half a million people have been displaced. Read more.

On a more positive note, a draft law in the Philippines, the Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict Bill, would, if enacted, prevent children used as soldiers and other children associated with the government armed forces or armed groups from being criminally prosecuted, and outlines procedures to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society. The bill also criminalises the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under 18 and related abuses against children, such as the occupation of schools by armed forces and groups.

A joint statement from Child Soldiers International and Human Rights Watch is calling on the government to revise the bill to prosecute those who recruit children, not the parents.

“This bill could bring Philippine law in line with the best international standards for protecting children in armed conflict,” said Charu Lata Hogg, Asia programme manager at Child Soldiers International. “But the recruiters of children [as] soldiers, not the children’s parents, should be the ones prosecuted for putting these children at grave risk.” Read more.

Also on the Philippines, the Special Representative (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict welcomed the landmark peace agreement between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), establishing a framework for settling the decade-long conflict in Mindanao between the two parties. “This is a major step not only to bring peace and reconciliation to the region, but also to alleviate the plight of children affected by the conflict” SRSG Zerrougui said. Read more.

US waives sanctions on countries that use child soldiers, again

For the third time, US President Barack Obama waived almost all the sanctions under the child soldiers law to fight human trafficking in the world. The child soldiers law prohibits US military education and training, foreign military financing, and other defense-related assistance to countries that actively recruit troops under the age of 18.

Human rights advocates saw the waivers as harmful to the goal of using US influence to urge countries that receive military assistance to move away from using child soldiers. Obama first waived the sanctions in 2010, the first year they were to go into effect. Read more.

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