South Sudan: Drifting Far Away From Its Own Children
Is There Any Hope For Its Young People?
12 August 2016
South Sudan: Drifting Far Away From Its Own Children
A child assembles toys made out of clay, these include a war tank and
helicopter gunship [Gurtong photo]
By Emmanuel Kenyi
Today the world celebrates International Youth Day but South Sudan is
on the brink of losing its entire young population. Engulfed by
violent conflict, South Sudanese children are now forced to make
desperate journeys to find safety instead of attending school. Since
2013, 1.61 million people have been internally displaced over 720,000
refugees in neighbouring countries.
The country has surely turned its back to its children, more than
900,000 children, have been displaced in the country, with 1.8 million
children, or 51 per cent of school-age children out of school, making
South Sudan a country with the highest proportion of out-of-school
children in the world. Reports suggest an estimated 16,000 children
had been recruited by armed groups between 2013 and 2015. With the
recent outbreak of fighting in Juba and other areas this number could
be much more.
South Sudan has great potential to grow owing to its large youth
population but this depends on how it treats its children. Mandela
was also known for his deep love of children. In his speech at a
‘National Men’s March’ in 1997, Late Nelson Mandela said, “…our
children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who
abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.”
Mandela’s words speak directly to the plight of vulnerable children in
war-ravaged South Sudan today, where UNICEF described the violence
against children by armed groups as “unspeakable”.
I had a chance to visit the UN Protection of Civilian (POC) sites
housing over 38,000 internally displaced people in Juba after the
recent violent conflict and a father came to us and showed us an empty
plate saying in a loud voice repeatedly “we want food and medicines,
our children are dying.” Around the camp children are not going to
school and the only thing they can do is to gather in one tent and
pretend they are in class and sing and play for hours before returning
to their tents.
Finally what killed my spirit was to see a group of children between
3-6 years old molding different types of guns, helicopter gunships,
Land Cruisers mounted with machineguns tanks and soldiers shooting
their guns, made out of mud. I asked myself where is the future of my
country? If my young brothers and sisters are molding guns instead of
going to school.
Kuany* 20years told me “I have not seen life out of the POC since I
came in this camp in 2013. I don’t know what is going on out there; I
don’t know how long I am going to stay here. I cannot go to school and
interact with my friends out there.”
Peace must be found, guns must go silent. The world must come to our
rescue otherwise there will be no one to fly the flag of South Sudan
in the future. The children of South Sudan are battling many fronts,
violence, forced displacement, hunger diseases and a lack of
education.
The children of South Sudan are bearing the heavy burden created by
their own parents and this should not be a death sentence for what is
not their own making, the world must act now.
Call to action
Guns must go silent and the country must immediately implement
the peace agreement to allow children to return to school and begin
their childhood
Increased funding to allow humanitarian assistance to the affected
population
An end to all forms of violence against children, including forced
recruitment into armed groups, and the occupation and closure of
schools
Posted in: Home, Featured Stories
- See more at:
http://gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ID/19760/Default.aspx#sthash.2Cfv7AvL.dpuf
--
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob
View this message at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"South Sudan Info - The Kob" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oq2LYRykFz1fVs-MO7%3Dh275mr%3DRv8HLfCtvpKrnhC3RQA%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
