South Sudan: Child Soldiers Still Recruited Amid Ongoing Conflict

Introduction

South Sudan has one of the highest rates of child soldier use in the world. Since the outbreak of civil war in December 2013, more than 19,000 children have been recruited and used by armed forces and armed groups across the country, according to UNICEF estimates. Both government forces and opposition armed groups appear on the UN Secretary-General's annual list of parties that recruit or use children in armed conflict—the so-called "list of shame."— making South Sudan one of the few countries where state forces are consistently named alongside rebel groups for this grave violation of children's rights. This article examines the scale and nature of child soldier recruitment in South Sudan, the applicable international legal framework, accountability mechanisms, and the ongoing challenges of reintegration.

Historical Background

The use of child soldiers in what is now South Sudan predates independence. During the second Sudanese civil war (1983–2005), the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) routinely recruited children, sometimes through abduction and sometimes through community pressure on families to contribute fighters to the liberation movement. International pressure and demobilisation programmes led to the release of some child soldiers during the interim period, but many were simply transferred between units rather than genuinely demobilised.

When civil war erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, recruitment of children resumed rapidly across all major armed factions. The SPLA (later renamed the South Sudan People's Defence Forces, or SSPDF) recruited children directly into its ranks, while the SPLA-IO (the opposition forces loyal to Riek Machar) and numerous allied and breakaway armed groups followed suit. Ethnic militias operating in Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states also recruited children as fighters, porters, and sexual slaves.

Current Patterns of Child Recruitment

The UN Secretary-General's 2023 annual report on children and armed conflict documented 1,048 verified cases of child recruitment and use in South Sudan during 2022 alone, with an estimated 65% of cases attributed to government-aligned forces and 35% to opposition and other armed groups. Girls constituted approximately 30% of recruited children, reflecting the widespread use of girls as sexual slaves, cooks, porters, and intelligence gatherers alongside their deployment as combatants.

Recruitment methods vary by armed group and region. Forcible abduction—particularly of boys between the ages of 12 and 16—has been documented in Jonglei and Upper Nile states. In other contexts, economic coercion operates as the mechanism: families living in extreme poverty and food insecurity have reported allowing or encouraging boys to join armed forces in exchange for food, clothing, and a small income for the family. This form of "voluntary" recruitment is not genuinely voluntary in conditions where families face starvation; international law classifies it as unlawful recruitment regardless of apparent family consent.

Within armed groups, children are subjected to severe physical abuse during training and operational deployment. Human Rights Watch documented in a 2022 report cases in which children as young as 12 were deployed in front-line combat roles, made to kill prisoners, and subjected to physical punishment including beating and food deprivation for any perceived disobedience. Girls in particular face systematic sexual violence, including rape by commanders and other fighters.

The targeting of schools for recruitment is a particular concern. UNICEF and Save the Children have documented repeated instances of armed actors entering school premises to recruit or abduct students. Schools have also been used as military bases and command centres, depriving children of access to education while simultaneously exposing them to military activity. The UN has identified South Sudan as one of the countries with the highest numbers of attacks on schools and the military use of educational facilities.

Comparison: Child Soldier Use Globally

International Legal Framework

The recruitment and use of children under 15 in armed conflict is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Article 8(2)(b)(xxvi) and Article 8(2)(e)(vii)). The ICC has prosecuted individuals for this crime: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was convicted in 2012, in the court's first-ever judgment, for enlisting and conscripting children under 15 into the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo. The use of children under 18 is prohibited by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC), to which South Sudan acceded in 2015.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which South Sudan is a party, requires states to take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities (Article 38). Article 39 requires states to take measures to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims of armed conflict. South Sudan's obligations under these instruments are clear and unambiguous.

The ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which South Sudan has ratified, classifies the forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict as among the worst forms of child labour, requiring immediate elimination. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), which South Sudan has ratified, further prohibits the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict under Article 22.

Action Plans and Their Implementation

South Sudan's government has signed several action plans with the UN committing to end the recruitment and use of children. The SPLA/SSPDF signed an action plan with the UN in 2012 to end the recruitment and use of children, and a subsequent plan in 2015. Despite these commitments, UN monitoring has consistently found continued violations. The government's Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), established under the R-ARCSS, identified child soldier recruitment as an unresolved compliance issue in its 2023 review.

Demobilisation, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR) programmes have achieved partial results. UNICEF and its implementing partners have facilitated the release of more than 7,000 children from armed forces and groups since 2015. However, reintegration support has been chronically underfunded, and released children frequently lack access to education, psychosocial support, and livelihood opportunities. Without sustained support, re-recruitment remains a significant risk: former child soldiers, particularly those with no family to return to and no economic alternatives, are highly vulnerable to being recruited again.

Expert Analysis

"The children fighting in South Sudan's war did not choose to be soldiers. They were stolen from their schools, their families, their childhoods. When they are eventually released, they carry wounds—physical and psychological—that will last a lifetime. South Sudan's government has signed every commitment it has been asked to sign, and then continued recruiting children. Words on paper mean nothing without accountability. Until commanders face real consequences for recruiting children, the practice will continue. The international community must use every lever available—sanctions, ICC referrals, aid conditionality—to make child soldier recruitment genuinely costly for those who order it."

Jo Becker, Children's Rights Division Director, Human Rights Watch, statement on South Sudan (2023)

Conclusion

The use of child soldiers in South Sudan represents one of the most severe and persistent violations of children's rights documented in the contemporary world. Government forces and armed groups alike have recruited children in violation of South Sudan's international legal obligations, and impunity for commanders responsible for these crimes remains nearly absolute. Action plans and demobilisation programmes have produced partial results but have not broken the cycle of recruitment, release, and re-recruitment. Ending child soldier use in South Sudan requires genuine accountability—including domestic prosecutions and international sanctions—alongside sustained investment in education, psychosocial recovery, and economic reintegration for affected children. The international community must treat this as the emergency it is, rather than as a problem to be managed through expressions of concern and underfunded programmes.