REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- The children of South Sudan are among the most vulnerable on the planet, two leading United Nations humanitarian agencies said on Tuesday, with a senior UN refugee official warning that the world's youngest nation cannot afford to lose a generation of children "as in them lies the future and hope of the young nation."
The UN Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in a joint press release issued on the 2nd anniversary since violence erupted in South Sudan, called for all parties to uphold their commitments to the Peace Agreement to allow the almost 1.5 million children to return home and receive an education.
The agreement also called for child soldiers to be released and reintegrated. An estimated 16,000 children have been forcibly recruited since fighting between forces backing President Salva Kiir and fighters loyal to former Vice-President Riek Machar erupted in December 2013, and the killings, abductions and sexual abuse of youngsters have continued throughout the country.
South Sudan on Tuesday marked two years since the start of a war that has forced one million people from their homes and left four million hungry as politicians broke at least eight commitments to peace.
UNICEF and UNHCR are urgently appealing to the global community for funds to provide shelter, education, health care, clean water, and other basic necessities for survival, as well as for the reintegration of children formerly in armed groups.
Over the past two years, 1.65 million people have become internally displaced, and more than 650,000 South Sudanese have sought international protection as refugees in neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda, said the UN agencies.
"Two years since the current crisis erupted, South Sudanese represent the largest refugee population in the region, with nearly three quarters of a million people forced into neighbouring countries," stated Ann Encontre, UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the South Sudan emergency.
"With most of those displaced being children, South Sudan cannot afford to have a generation of children lost, as in them lies the future and hope of the young nation," she said.
In South Sudan, children's needs for medicines, food, and shelter far outweigh availability, and at least half a million have had their education disrupted, according to the agencies.
Neighboring countries have generously opened their borders and provided access to available services, which, however, remain extremely limited or even inexistent in some settlement areas. In refugee locations, the enrolment rate for refugee children remains at a critically low 56 percent.
Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala, UNICEF's regional director in Eastern and Southern Africa, said that "respect for the Peace Agreement by all parties will enable children to reignite prospects and hopes for a dignified future."
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