Over 14,000 South Sudanese children still in armed conflict

The UN children's agency, UNICEF said some 14,200 South Sudanese children still remain in armed conflict.

"Out of the 16,000 children serving various armed groups in South Sudan, only 1,800 children have been released," UNICEF South Sudan communications officer, Tim Irwin, told Xinhua in an interview in Juba on Friday.

He said that nearly 1 million children have been displaced and 400,000 are out of school since the start of the more than two years of conflict.

Irwin said the most affected areas are Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states where brutal conflict took a toll on the economic and social fabric.

"There are still people in parts of Unity state who are inaccessible. Even in Wau, there are areas we are not able to reach," Irwin said, noting that they need unrestricted access to people in need.

UNICEF, he revealed, requires about 155 million U.S dollars for emergency needs, and of which only 30 percent is available.

"We are very much under funded. We had programs in Wau but now about 70,000 people have been displaced in recent upsurge of fighting there," he said.

He added they have treated about 160,000 children of malnourishment and immunized 13,000 children and mothers against polio, meningitis and malaria in Wau.
Source:XINHUA