A human rights report alleges that forces loyal to South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir deployed child soldiers during fighting in Unity State last week.
Armed forces from the two warring factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army clashed around Bentiu and Rubkona on Friday.
“The government used child soldiers in renewed fighting in mid-August 2014 in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, and in the neighboring town of Rubkona,” a Wednesday press release from Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
“Ten people who fled the fighting told Human Rights Watch in Bentiu that they saw dozens of children in military uniform, armed with assault rifles, deployed with government soldiers and firing on opposition positions,” the report said.
A 12-year-old boy told a HRW researcher that on the morning of 15 August a government soldier ordered him and other children in Rubkona to shoot at rebels.
Many observers have seen child soldiers deployed in the Rubkona-Bentiu area since government forces claimed control of the towns in May. On 12 August a HRW researcher saw 15 soldiers who appeared to be under 18 years of age around the Rubkona military base and airstrip.
The report added that at least three local government officials in Bentiu have used children as armed bodyguards.
Photo: A portrait of a 14 year old Boy in Bentiu. Adriane Ohanesian/Al Jazeera.
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