Allan Kudumoch Agon had his childhood stolen from him when he was forced to fight as a child soldier. Now 21, he is trying to help others avoid the same fate.
During an event commemorating the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, or Red Hand Day, in Juba, Agon recounted how his father was killed during the South Sudanese civil war that ended in 2020. At 8, he was left in the care of his elderly grandmother, but he was soon sent into the bush, where he and other children were trained to fight.
“Being a child soldier left me with disgust and burdens that may last forever,” Agon said in an Anadolu Agency report. “My prayer is that no child should ever have to go through this situation.”
Agon was one of several people, including representatives from the South Sudanese government and United Nations, who spoke at the event where South Sudan reaffirmed its commitment to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Esther Ikere, South Sudanese undersecretary at the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, said the government was working with its partners to ensure that children are no longer recruited, that those who have been released are supported and that the root causes of child recruitment are addressed.
“A dark chapter in our history, children who should be in classrooms, playing, and dreaming of their futures has instead been forced to bear the burdens of the war,” Ikere said. “They have been robbed of their innocence, their education, and their fundamental rights. We must acknowledge the immense harm this has caused, the physical injuries, the psychological trauma, and the lost opportunities of these young lives.”
Child soldiers who are released in South Sudan typically enter the UNICEF three-year reintegration program, in which they are matched with a social worker and receive health care and psychological support. The program costs $2,000 per child.
At the Red Hand Day event, Gen. Ashhab Khamis Fahal, assistant chief of South Sudan’s defense forces, said the government is determined to better protect children.
“We have done our part by disseminating the information to the lower level, especially the commanders in charge of the forces, that it is their responsibility to make sure that there is not any form of child recruitment among the forces,” Fahal said in the Anadolu Agency report. “So they have to make sure that children are not recruited.”
In 2023, officials recorded 152 cases of children deployed into armed South Sudanese conflicts, including 65 children recruited and used by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, according to a June 2024 U.N. report. In South Sudan, about 12% of children recruited by armed groups are girls, who are disproportionately subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, according to UNICEF.
A young woman named Rose told UNICEF she was 17 when she was kidnapped from the home she shared with her husband.
“The soldiers had guns and tied my hands with rope,” she said. “Around 50 of us were abducted. They gave us things to carry, and then we had to run. If we slowed, they hit us with sticks. I fell once, and they caned me so many times, I nearly died.”
She said she was routinely harassed.
“Some of them asked me to be their girlfriend and beat me when I said no,” she told UNICEF. “Then, one of them raped me after I refused.”
While stories like those of Agon and Rose are common among recruited children, others join armed groups to escape poverty or defend their communities, Aya Warille Benjamin, South Sudanese minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, said in a U.N. report
“Their role is not limited to fighting,” Benjamin said. “Many girls and boys are also used in support functions that entail great risk and hardship: from combatants to cooks, spies, messengers and even sex slaves. No matter their role, children are exposed to acute levels of violence: as witnesses, direct victims, and as forced participants.”
South Sudanese Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior in September said it takes more than good governance to end the scourge.
“It takes good people on the streets working every day to make a change,” Nyandeng de Mabior said in a U.N. report. “It takes dedicated commitment and hard day to day work. We must reach out to protect vulnerable children. It is a responsibility we all share.”