By Gatleak Gallou Deng
![Ex-child soldier and University graduate Gatleak Gallou Deng. [Photo courtesy of the author]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-1.jpg?quality=89&ssl=1)
During demobilization parade in Malow Jiech Rumbek Sudan Feb 2001 SPLA General Pieng Deng assured our releases with quotes “In any society around the globe children are protected hence elders choose to die first before their young ones” handing us over to UNICEF for transit repatriations.
In June 1998 exactly at the age of 14-year-old, I and my three brothers both 17 years old recruited by military force of SPLA commanded by General Peter Gatdet who was mobilizing youth to raise against Arab Jihad who were advancing toward the villages in search of oil and other useful resources.
After a week in military training camp my father the Subchief Gallou Deng came trying to convince the operations commanders James Gatluak Gai Kuai and Yian Kap Mach since military logistics supplies was from civilian through chiefs my father offered over 10 cows for my releases as I was the younger son amongst the brothers who endured the military situations, given the situation I was seeing the Arabs are invading the villages with a lot of atrocities I turned down my father’s requests and choose to continue in army to protect my village from the aggressive government of Khartoum.
Serving in many frontlines for good 3 years before demobilization of child soldiers.
- Western Upper Nile 1998 to 2000 under command of SPLA Gen. Peter Gatdet fighting with Arab Jihads in Bentiu, Tuoyrour military ships rescuing the seized Wankey Sudanese Army force. and as an actives child soldier I started my primary school in 2000 in Boaw Payam of Koch County Western Upper Nile with multiple stops of some months in Frontline of Dhorkan a round Bentiu and Wankey frontlines.
- Bahr El Ghazal Raja frontline 2001 under SPLA Gen. Pieng Deng where I joined the demobilized child soldiers.
- After demobilization continued the study in Pan-Awach child soldier transit camp and later transfer to Maleng-Agok transit camp as the repatriations process continue through UNICEF and SPLM task Force and body tasking the help repatriation happen as plan by UNICEF and Partners.
Child Recruitment and Deployment – SPLA
Representatives of the SPLA have repeatedly provided assurances to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the UN Special Rapporteur about human rights in the Sudan that they would discontinue the use of child soldiers.
In early 2001, the SPLA cooperated with UNICEF and other organizations in the demobilization of 3,200 child soldiers. The children were transported from areas in SPLA-held Bahr El Ghazal to the SPLA controlled town of Rumbek from 23-28 February 2001. The evacuation followed a pledge given by SPLA Chief of Staff Salva Kiir to UNICEF to demobilize all child soldiers in the SPLA forces. The SPLA have stated that there are 7,000 more child soldiers still to be demobilized. The government of Sudan formally protested the evacuation, claiming that the airlift was conducted secretly in violation of agreements between the UN and government. The government also criticized the fact that the children were evacuated to Rumbek rather than being repatriated with their families. The SPLA rationale for the airlift was that they were expecting a government dry-season offensive in the area in which child soldiers were deployed and for safety reasons would not place a demobilization transit Centre in that area. Questions have been raised by NGOs about how many of the children released were actually child soldiers.
Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 – Sudan
CONTEXT
Sudan has experienced civil war in the south of the country; the conflict spread in 1986 to the central Nuba Mountains and in 1995 to the east of Sudan, becoming a war of marginalized groups against the centre. The war is estimated to have resulted in 2 million deaths, directly or indirectly (ie by famine and illness caused by civilian displacement). The principal insurgent group is the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang. In 1995, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed as a broad political alliance that includes the SPLA and insurgent forces operating out of Ethiopia and Eritrea carrying out offensives along the Sudanese border. In 2000 the government and SPLA met on four occasions with mediators from the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), but there was no significant progress towards peace.
There are also several smaller factions, the largest of which broke from the SPLA on ethnic lines in 1991, became the South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A), entered into a peace agreement with the government and was recognised as the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) in 1997. Another group formed by the same leader, the Sudan People’s Democratic Front/Defence Forces (SPDF), was declared a rebel movement, but appeared to have accepted government support in 2000.
GOVERNMENT
National Recruitment Legislation and Practice
Article 35 (1)(b) of the new Constitution adopted in June 1998 provides, “Every citizen shall defend the country and respond to the call for national defence and national service.” The National Service Law of 1992 provides that all men between 18 and 33 years old are liable for military service. Military service lasts for 24 months, 18 months for high school graduates and 12 months for university and college graduates. In 1997 the government also issued a Decree by which all boys of ages 17 to 19 were obliged to do between 12- and 18-months compulsory military service to be able to receive a certificate on leaving secondary school, which is required for entry into a university.
Child Recruitment and Deployment
Paramilitaries and armed groups aligned with the government of Sudan have a long history of forced recruitment, including of children under 18 (the youngest age recorded in the past being a child of 10 years old). The Popular Defence Forces (PDF), a militia with a formal relationship to the authorities, were reported to have recruited, often forcibly, thousands of children, although levels of child recruitment are believed to have fallen since the mid-1990s.
Tribal Militias in Western Sudan
The government has also continued its policy of arming militias of the Baggara tribes (the “murahaleen” of Western Sudan). These tribes then carry out raids into southern Sudan, primarily against the Dinkas in Bahr el Ghazal, while they are accompanying and guarding troop trains to the southern garrison town of Wau. The murahaleen are reported to have captured women and children who are then taken north where they are sold as slaves.
Other government-allied groups
Pro-government militias in southern Sudan are also reported to use children as soldiers. Paulino Matip, in his government-armed militia, is reported to have forcibly conscripted boys as young as 10 to serve as soldiers.
South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A)
The SSIM/A, which formed from a breakaway faction of the SPLA, entered into a peace agreement with the government and was recognized as the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) in 1997. The SSDF agreed in 1998 with UNICEF and Rädda Barnen on a program of demobilizations of child soldiers. That program was underway with 280 child soldiers between the age of 10 and 18 registered and demobilized and living in a transit centre in Thonyor, near Leer, Western Upper Nile, southern Sudan, when in May 1999 fighting broke out between the SSDF and another government-controlled militia. As a result, the child soldiers scattered. Many were remobilised by the factions. In 2000, some 200 were re-demobilised and an additional 88 demobilised for the first time. They were in a transit centre in Nyal, Western Upper Nile, a stronghold of the Sudan People’s Democratic Front/Defence Forces (SPDF), formed in January 2000 by the same leader, Riek Machar. The SPDF was declared a rebel movement but appeared to have accepted government support in 2000.
SPLA begins demobilization of children in southern Sudan
TAM, SOUTHERN SUDAN, 21 January 2004 – Officials from the rebel SPLA movement of southern Sudan have begun a large demobilization of children in the volatile Western Upper Nile region. The first batch of 94 child soldiers, who are among an estimated 800 in the area, were ordered by commanders to put down their guns, give back their uniforms, return to their families and go to school during a ceremony in the village of Tam.
The children ran from the parade area whooping demands of “School! School! School!”
John Majak [not his real name], aged only 10, said that he “wanted to learn,” and looked forward to seeing his mother after many months apart.
The remaining child soldiers from this area are expected to be released this week in a series of similar ceremonies.
UNICEF has supported the demobilization of child soldiers throughout southern Sudan since 2000. The UN children’s agency has also supported the establishment by the rebel SPLM/SPLA movements of a special task force to de-mobilize children in rebel ranks.
The SPLM/SPLA Child Soldier Task Force has demobilized 12,000 children since it began in late 2001. UNICEF support to the Task Force has totaled about $500,000.
About 2500 will children remain in the SPLA after these Western Upper Nile demobilizations are complete, many in areas which remain insecure for the time being. However, the Task Force aims to demobilizes all children in the SPLA forces before the signature of a peace agreement with the Government of Sudan.
For 2004, UNICEF seeks funding of $92 million for programmes in both Northern and Southern Sudan. An important part of this programme will address the demobilizations and reintegration of children from government forces and allied militia.
My sincere gratitude thanks to UNICEF for the services and a successful transit schools and repatriation without this I wouldn’t be graduate today and rather remain as normal SPLA soldier who can only fights and physical fights like other SPLA colleagues.
For further information, please contact:
Gordon Weiss, UNICEF New York, 1 (212) 326-7426
Almost 3,500 children, who were taking part in Sudan’s civil war as soldiers as recently as five months ago, have returned to their communities and families in southern Sudan, with the assistance of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
All but 70 of the 3,551 child soldiers, who were released by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in February 2001, have now been returned to their original home communities, according to a UNICEF press statement. The 70 remaining boys came from inaccessible areas or places of chronic instability and were still being cared for at a camp near Rumbek, Lakes region [Al-Buhayrat], run by the organization Samaritan’s Purse, it added.
The children were demobilised by the SPLA in fulfilment of a pledge the rebel group had made to Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, during a visit to southern Sudan in October 2000. They were temporarily moved by the UN from the conflict zone of Bahr al-Ghazal into transit camps in safe areas, in an operation then criticised by the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The government had criticised the transportation of children from areas controlled by the SPLA “without the knowledge or consultation of the government of Sudan”, according to Sudanese media reports at the time.
Bellamy expressed her delight with the return home of the former child soldiers – some of whom had military training without ever engaging in military actions, while others had been involved in combat, and experienced traumas.
“These [returnee] children are among the lucky ones,” said Bellamy . “Their demobilizations was hard-won but decisive, their relocation on WFP planes was extraordinary, and their stay in the transit camps preparing to return home was rewarding for all of us,” she said.
“I applaud the support of WFP, aid organizations, donors, and community leaders on the ground who gave their all to making this effort a success,” she added. [see press release) at: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/
“We were very happy to be a partner in this ground-breaking operation,” Masood Hyder, Director of WFP’s Sudan Country Programme, added. “We rescheduled a number of activities so the relocation could happen as quickly and smoothly as possible,” he added.
One of the children, 12-year-old Peter Mawien, was reported to have arrived to an emotional greeting from his cousins, aunt and uncle, who carried him home and rubbed ash on his arms, legs and face – a tradition believed to chase away evil spirits.
“I’m so happy and excited to be home. I’ve been away for so long… I want to take up the pen and go to school to study. I will only have a future if I can get an education,” he said after his return.
“The children were absorbed right back into their communities,” UNICEF Child Protection officer Ushari Mahmoud said. “We worked closely with community leaders, and it paid off. This part of southern Sudan has an ordered social hierarchy where every family is known, and we’ve worked within this system to make sure the children get home as quickly as possible.”
Approximately 200 of the returnees have not gone back to their immediate families, either because they were orphans with no close living relative, or because their families have been displaced, according to the UN agency. Those children have been taken in by communities and allocated to families by chiefs, as is usual under traditional provisions for the care of vulnerable children.
This “community fostering” reflected both the Dinka and Nuer community’s view – as captured in their saying: “A child is a child of everyone” – and the concern of humanitarian workers not to put children into institutions, according to UNICEF (Southern Sudan) spokesman in Nairobi, Martin Dawes.
“Our latest figures are that 96 percent of the children have gone back either to their family or to people who were caring for them before. That is a very high percentage and we’re very happy with that,” Dawes told IRIN.
While in the transit camps, 72 of the better educated young Sudanese were given training to work as primary school teaching assistants, according to UNICEF. Forty others were trained as water pump mechanics, others received training in food cultivation, and about 90 were given special teaching to promote better hygiene, sanitation and HIV/AIDS awareness.
In the course of the transit phase, over 490 people worked with the children – including UNICEF staff, specially employed teachers, doctors, health and care staff, and NGO workers – at a ratio of one responsible adult for every seven children, Dawes added.
UNICEF and its partner organisations – such as International Rescue Committee (IRC), Radda Barnen and Save the Children (UK) – would continue to work to improve conditions in the children’s home areas, with additional resources allocated for education, health and water, according to Wednesday’s press statement. Nor was this the end of the operation, according to the head of UNICEF operations in southern Sudan, Dr Sharad Sapra.
“We need to focus on supporting the communities these children have gone home to, both to ease the general suffering and to make it less likely children will ever be recruited again,” he said. “And there are still some 4,000 children in the SPLA awaiting demobilisation. We have to learn from this experience and begin working on getting those children home too,” Sapra added.
Carol Bellamy also spoke of the hopeful message that this return put out, two weeks before world leaders are scheduled to meet in New York, USA, for the UN General Assembly’s Special Summit on Children.
“This proves once again that the willing cooperation of people of influence can bring an end to the appalling use of children as soldiers,” she said. “Let’s hope these children and young people get the full fresh start they deserve and that world leaders are inspired by this example of action for children, even in the midst of conflict.”
The author is a former child soldier and a graduate of Bachelor of Business Administration (Procurement & Logistics) at Cavendish University Uganda 2021. Reach him via: gatleakg@gmail.com.
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