At least 13 children were last weekend reunited with their parents in Kapoeta North and Kapoeta South Counties of South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria State.
Late last month, 13 children from areas of Kapoeta North and South left their homes for Uganda through Kenya in pursuit of academic scholarships but they were instead apprehended by authorities in the Ugandan town of Moroto.
The children, aged between eight and fifteen years, traveled to the town of Lodwar in Kenya on 29 May, where they met the representative of their sponsor before connecting to Uganda where they got arrested and detained.
Peter Cyprian, a father to one of the children, said he was happy to have his child back but confirms that he was not worried since he was always in communication with the team on the ground.
“I was not worried because I was online communicating to them and then I came to know that the problem is the process, the procedures so I was not worried but I know because I respect the laws even of our neighbors. So I was not so worried,” the parent said.
Paul Napwon, the chairperson of the Toposa community, confirmed the return of the children and described it as good news.
“The handover took place in the presence of the minister of education, security people, and some leaders from the community. So the handing over was good, we are very happy,” Napwon said. “We also appreciate the initiative of the sponsor and we still ask the sponsor not to let us down. We are asking them to continue communicating with us in regards to this issue. We need these children to go back to school after this Coronavirus lockdown.”
He disclosed that they will work together to ensure all the necessary documents are obtained to avoid future inconveniences.
“They have said that let the children go back then the official way is followed. So for that matter, we don’t have a problem and we are going to follow all the steps required but the children have to go back (to school),” Napwon added.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Equatoria State Minister of Education, Lopeyok Sammy Aperengole, who was tasked by Governor Louis Lobong to facilitate the return of the children, clarified that the children were not arrested.
“We went there the other day after facilitation and a directive from the governor. He gave me a directive to go and pick those children from the border. When we went there, we took some three hours again waiting for the team to bring those children to us,” Minister Lopeyk narrated. “When they arrived, we received them. There were a total of 13 children, seven girls, and six boys. We were briefed by the deputy ambassador of South Sudan to Uganda, Major General Samuel Wani that the children were not arrested but the person escorting them, Dr. Lopua, was the one in jail.”
For his part, the commissioner of Kapoeta North, Emmanuel Ephone Lolimo, said he was happy that the children were returned safely but said the way they were taken to Uganda was not appropriate.
“There are two things that I can say; I am happy that the children are safely back and they are united with their parents although the procedures that were used for taking the children to Uganda were not right. I think they intentionally decided to bypass my authority,” Commissioner Ephone said. “They went and used the commissioner of Kapoeta South County to write the letter they used and the county education director of Kapoeta South and yet we have a county education director for Kapoeta North County who could be the immediate person to write to the commissioner and then the commissioner writes to the minister of education and that one also proceeds by writing to the governor who then writes to the ministry of foreign affairs.”
The children, according to the information from the ground, possessed documents from the county but did not have documents from the state government and that resulted in their detention in Uganda.
Earlier, the governor’s press secretary, Aliardo Lotok, stated that the children and their sponsor’s representative were detained after Ugandan authorities suspected child trafficking.