The civil war in South Sudan is ongoing, but some 3,000 child soldiers will have the chance to give up their weapons and return home.
In South Sudan, where a civil war has raged unabated for the last year, the United Nations estimates that roughly 12,000 children have been recruited to carry arms in the conflict.
UNICEF/South Sudan/Marinetta Peru
On Tuesday, however, UNICEF announced that it had reached an agreement with one faction in the fighting to release 3,000 of the children it had recruited as part of a deal to integrate into the South Sudanese Army.
Now former child soldiers proceed to a demobilization ceremony after turning in their arms
UNICEF/South Sudan/Marinetta Peru
The children in question were part of a rebel group known as the South Sudan Democratic Movement's Cobra Faction, a branch commanded by a frequent antagonist of the South Sudanese government named David Yau Yau. Cobra Faction is now in the process of integrating with the South Sudanese army, which has agreed with the United Nations that any group merging with it must release any child soldiers under its authority.
The negotiation, UNICEF's Emergency child protection specialist Saudamini Siegrist told BuzzFeed News, kicked into high gear last June and finally resulted in a memorandum of understanding between the United Nations, the South Sudanese government, and Cobra Faction to facilitate the release of the children.
"UNICEF's position is that children should be unconditionally released at the soonest possible moment in any and all instances," Siegrist said of the timing of the release, as the larger conflict is still ongoing. "So we don't wait for a peace agreement even. ... We seek to release children as soon as possible."
The demobilization ceremony held on Tuesday saw the decommissioning of some 280 children in the village of Gumuruk in Jonglei State in eastern South Sudan. The others will be released over the coming weeks and months.
UNICEF/South Sudan/Marinetta Peru
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