Officials in the South Sudanese region where UNICEF says dozens of children were forcibly conscripted into military training say that they are preparing to sue the child welfare agency for what they say is a false report. They are demanding an apology from UNICEF.
Dr. Wau Agot Deng, Commissioner of Makal County in Upper Nile State, told Radio Tamazuj today that the local authorities held a meeting with UNICEF to demand an apology for the accusations. He claimed that a UNICEF official had admitted to him that their report was mistaken and that it would provide a written apology to the government.
But the UN agency never responded to this demand and consequently they have opened a court case against UNICEF over the report that they issued last month, he said. UNICEF had said that at least 89 boys were abducted during exam time in Wau Shilluk settlement in mid-February and forced to join an armed group led by General Johnson Olony.
UNICEF stated that it was “confident” that Olony’s forces were responsible for the mass recruitment of child soldiers.
The county commissioner denied this saying, “There were no people abducted in Makal County and yet people [i.e., UNICEF] are saying there are people abducted. Before I talked to the UNICEF people and told them what you said is not good… there is no single person in Makal County who was abducted. That is political talk.”
“Now I have opened a case and I have two lawyers now working with me on this issue, and I will go to the court over this issue because those people [i.e. UNICEF] can bring confusion to the citizens.”
He also reiterated the position of other national and state officials who have consistently described as incorrect press statements and media reports that call Olony a militia leader. “Johnson Olony is not a militia [leader]. He is one of the commanders of SPLA,” he said, using the acronym for the national army.
Deng claimed the first hearing in the case would be on the 27th of this month.
File photo: Child soldiers wait to be freed from David Yau Yau’s Cobra Faction in Pibor, 2015 (Radio Tamazuj)
Related coverage:
Upper Nile govt restricts NGOs after mass child soldier recruitment (2 March)
Johnson Olony abducted ‘hundreds’ of boys to send to frontlines, UNICEF says (28 Feb.)
Militia accused of child abductions ‘is part of S. Sudan army’ (24 Feb.)