Sudanese government, rebel armies slammed for recruiting children

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Wednesday August 23, 2006

Khartoum- Sudanese children in Darfur and southern Sudan continue to face threats to their safety including recruitment into armed forces and sexual abuse, Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General said in a report Wednesday. Rebel groups, including the Darfuri Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and Chadian opposition forces, along with janjaweed militia in Sudan's embattled western Darfur region are widely reported to be recruiting boys under the age of 18 to serve in their ranks.

The national army of president Omar el Beshir's government was also implicated in the report.

"It is estimated that thousands of children are still associated with armed forces and groups in Darfur and were actively involved in conflict between May and July 2006," the report stated.

The report also charges that recruitment of children into armed forces continues to be a practice in southern Sudan, which ended a twenty-one year civil war with the Khartoum-based government in 2005.

While boys face the risk of recruitment into armed conflict, girls in Sudan are subjected to sexual violence, it said.

Girls are particularly vulnerable in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands live in squalid refugee camps, facing the threat of rape each time they venture beyond camp borders to collect firewood.

The three-year-old conflict in Darfur has become increasingly violent since the signing of a peace accord in May, which divided rebel movements.

One faction of the SLA, led by Minni Minnawi, signed on to the deal, while three other factions refused, claiming the deal did not meet their basic demands.

Sudan has come under intense pressure to allow a UN force to replace a struggling African Union mission which is currently monitoring the region.

Meanwhile the African Union has struggled with a weak mandate and a lack of funding. Two AU troops were killed and three more wounded in an attack on an AU convoy last Saturday.

The conflict began when rebels attacked government positions, complaining that the remote region remained undeveloped due to governmental neglect.

Sudan is charged with arming proxy militias, now known as janjaweed, to crush the rebellion, but Khartoum denies the charge.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur