An unpublicized recruitment campaign by South Sudan’s security forces is sweeping up teenagers from the streets of the capital, Juba, and other towns, transporting them to remote military training sites, according to investigations carried out by Radio Tamazuj.
Twenty-three boys and young men, most in their mid-teens, recently arrived in Lankien, Nyirol County of Jonglei State, after fleeing a secret military training camp in Upper Nile State.
Escapees say they were detained in Juba during a police–army operation initially presented as a crime-reduction drive, but which families now describe as an increasingly indiscriminate roundup.
‘We Simply Disappeared’
Seventeen-year-old Wani says he was seized on 6 November 2025 while working as a rickshaw driver in Atlabara.
“I tried to explain that I was a student, but they took me to Sector 6 police station,” he said. “My brother came and pleaded for my release, but they transferred me to Jamus military barracks.”
Hours later, Wani says he was loaded onto a truck with about 300 others before being flown to Malakal on an aircraft he says belonged to Kush Airlines, a private airline based in Juba providing charter services.
From there, the group was transported by barge to Agelachiel in Baliet County, where a military training camp for the forced recruitment of youth is established.
“We rarely ate, and the treatment was very harsh,” he said. “Twenty-five of us escaped, but one didn’t make it—he was shot dead. Two others we caught and returned to the training camp.”
A Widening Pattern of Detentions
Maker, 18, said he was picked up while walking to the market in Juba last month to buy Christmas clothes.
“We were held for days in Jamus, given uniforms, and flown to Malakal,” he said. “We spent 11 days there before being taken to Agelachiel. That’s where we decided to flee because we suffered a lot during the military training.”
He said that before military training started in Agelachiel, conscripts were separated by ethnicity: “There were 33 Nuer, 15 Bari, 12 Shilluk, and others from Dinka and Equatorian communities.”
The group eventually escaped and surrendered to the opposition SPLM-IO in Nyirol County, who treated them for dehydration before planning to hand them over to a UN agency.
Peter Gatkuoth Koang, the SPLM-IO-appointed commissioner of Nyirol, said: “Yes, I can confirm that twenty-three arrived here. They are exhausted and receiving care. After that, we will hand them over to the UN for family tracing.”
Extortion Allegations
Accounts from families in Juba indicate the operation extends beyond forced recruitment, with some describing a system of arbitrary detention and ransom demands by the security forces.
A 26-year-old trader, who requested anonymity, said he was arrested on 3 September 2025 and held for two months.
“They took my phone and money and drove me to Jamus military barracks,” he said. “I kept asking why I was being arrested. They beat me and locked me up with many others.”
He said he was taken to the airport several times to be transported out of Juba but was left behind because flights were full.
“Eventually they told me to call someone who could pay 500,000 South Sudanese pounds. That’s how I was released,” he said.
He revealed that boys as young as 13 were briefly detained before senior officers ordered their release.
“During my time there, boys arrived from Bor and Wau,” he said. “They came in groups. Many were very young—some looked around 13 or 14—but when senior officers inspected the cell, the youngest were released.”
Those old enough to remain, he said, were routinely prepared for flights or barge transfers.
“Once you reach Jamus military barracks in Juba, you either pay or you end up being flown out,” he said.
Gloria, a mother of four, said her cousin went missing after stepping out of their house in Gudele.
“At first, they were targeting gang groups, but now they arrest anyone,” she said. “We still don’t know where he is. We think he may have been taken to Upper Nile.”
Lack of Transparency
Authorities have repeatedly defended the crackdown as a necessary response to rising crime. But testimonies from escapees, families, and detainees indicate a pattern far beyond routine policing: secret transfers, unexplained detentions, military flights, and young people who vanish without official record.
Families say they receive no notification, no charges are filed, and no information is offered about where their children are taken.
In July, when reports of forced conscription of youth emerged in Juba following a crackdown on criminal activities, Police Spokesperson James Monday Enoka defended the operation, saying it targeted “those actively committing crimes,” including armed assaults and rapes.
“We are not arresting random youths. Those with evidence against them face legal processes; innocent ones, like students, are released,” Enoka told Radio Tamazuj at the time.
He also denied accusations that some detainees were being sent to conflict zones in Upper Nile State.
South Sudan’s laws and international obligations clearly prohibit forced recruitment into the military and the recruitment of anyone under 18, especially into armed groups.
The forced recruitment campaign began following clashes in March between the White Army and the national army in Nasir and Ulang counties in Upper Nile State. Fighting in Nasir led to the temporary capture of an army base by the White Army and the deaths of dozens of soldiers, including the base commander, General David Majur Dak. Following the incidents in Nasir and Ulang, violence spread to other parts of Upper Nile State.