Child soldiers start new life in southern Sudan

NAIROBI, Jan 23 (Reuters) – A group of Sudanese child soldiers laid down their guns on Friday as part of a drive to demobilise underage fighters caught up in a 20-year-old civil war, the U.N. children’s agency said.

As hopes grow for a final deal to end the conflict, 94 soldiers aged between 10 and 17 shed their khaki fatigues amid shouts of “School! School!” in Tam, a village in Sudan’s Western Upper Nile region, UNICEF said.

During the demobilisation ceremony, rebel military commanders told the children to return to their families and go to school. Most of the young fighters had been stationed in barracks close to their villages and were able to walk home.

Two million people have been killed in the war in Africa’s largest country, which pits the Islamist government against southern Christian and animist rebels, and hopes for an end to the conflict hinge on peace talks being held in Kenya.

A web of conflicts over oil, ideology, ethnicity and religion have complicated more than a year of U.S.-backed negotiations, but Washington’s special envoy to Sudan said last week the warring factions were within reach of a final deal.

UNICEF said up to 800 children in the volatile Western Upper Nile region were expected to be disarmed and released this week, saying that showed the rebels were looking towards the end of the war.

“We’ve committed ourselves to demobilising child soldiers and told our commanders not to accept anyone below 18 years,” said Samson Kwaje, a spokesman for the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).

Una McCauley, a UNICEF child protection officer, said: “It’s a symbol that the (SPLA/M) is looking at the end of the war… and for some pragmatists it’s better to come out of it looking like a professional army than a ragtag army with lots of kids.”

UNICEF said 12,000 child soldiers have been demobilised since late 2001. Another 2,500 are expected to remain in the region although the aim of the SLPA/M Child Soldier Task Force is to demobilise them before a possible peace deal.