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JUBA, South Sudan, February 7, 2018 – More than 300 child soldiers have today been officially released by armed groups in Yambio to begin reintegrating into their communities and learning new skills to support themselves, according to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
“Children should not be carrying guns and killing each other. They should be playing, learning, having fun with friends, protected and cherished by the adults around them,” said the UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS, David Shearer.
A total of 700 children have been screened and registered for release in phases – 563 from the South Sudan National Liberation Movement (SSNLM) and 137 associated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army In-Opposition (SPLA-IO). The first phase of the release project involving 311 young people was today marked at a ceremony in Yambio.
Eighty seven of the children released today are girls with the final total involved in the Yambio project expected to reach 220.
“This is the first time so many young women have been involved in a release like this in South Sudan,” said David Shearer. “They will have endured suffering, including sexual abuse. It is vital that they receive the support they need to rejoin their communities and that they are welcomed home by family and friends without any sense of stigma.”
UNMISS has been leading the project to release the children for more than six months, including providing peacekeeping troops to escort religious leaders into remote bush areas to make contact and negotiate with the armed groups. It has also worked closely with other key partners such as UNICEF, state and local authorities as well as community groups.
“Without the combined effort of all of these partners, today’s release would not have been possible,” said David Shearer. “I would like to pay particular credit to religious leaders who travelled into conflict zones and risked their own lives to bring these children to safety.”
David Shearer said the challenge ahead is to ensure the young people have the financial, practical, and emotional support they need to undertake training, find jobs, and access the opportunities they deserve to reach their full potential.
To assist in this process, UNMISS engineers have rehabilitated the road between Yambio and a nearby vocational training center so the young people can travel safely for training. UNMISS is also progressing other projects to release child soldiers over the coming months in Morobo, Bentiu, and in Pibor where 315 have been verified and registered so far.





Tanzania is hosting the largest number of Burundians with 254,000 refugees, while 89,000 are in Rwanda with another 44,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and some 40,000 in Uganda.
GENEVA, Switzerland, February 6, 2018 – Text presented by Catherine Wiesner, UNHCR’s Regional Coordinator for the Burundi situation – to whom quoted text may be attributed – to the Palais press this morning, before the regular press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva:
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with its 26 other humanitarian partners, is today launching a funding appeal for US$391 million to support some 430,000 Burundian refugees during 2018.
We are urging donors to step up support for desperate refugees who struggle to survive in neighbouring countries as efforts are falling short of acceptable humanitarian standards. The international community must also stay engaged in the pursuit of a genuine and lasting resolution to the Burundi crisis.
Low levels of humanitarian funding for this crisis remains a great concern. Burundian refugees could get a mere 21 per cent of the required funds – making it the world’s least funded refugee response plan.
Our appeal, being presented today to donors in Geneva, aims to ensure the needs of Burundian refugees are not overlooked and the situation does not become a forgotten refugee crisis.
Since 2015, more than 400,000 refugees and asylum-seekers have fled the country, escaping human rights abuses, continued political uncertainty, and the related humanitarian crisis.
Refugee numbers are expected to increase by over 50,000 this year as regional efforts to resolve the political crisis in the country have not made significant progress.
The human rights situation inside Burundi remains worrying. Unless the political situation changes and socio-economic conditions improve, the outflow of Burundian refugees – mostly to neighbouring countries – is expected to continue in 2018, though at a lower level.
Tanzania is hosting the largest number of Burundians with 254,000 refugees, while 89,000 are in Rwanda with another 44,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and some 40,000 in Uganda. Smaller refugee numbers have also fled to Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa.
In 2017, over 61,000 refugees arrived in the neighbouring countries. Though numbers have dropped in comparison to 2016 (when some 123,000 had fled), thousands still kept crossing the borders to seek safety in the region.
With increasing humanitarian needs, dwindling resources did not allow assistance levels to reach acceptable standards throughout the region despite our efforts.
As the majority of refugees (85 per cent) live in refugee camps, underfunding has impacted all areas of life – including food cuts, dilapidated shelters, overcrowded classrooms, and limited capacity to respond to sexual and gender based violence.
Underfunding also severely affects our ability to invest in integrated social services and livelihood opportunities, limits support to environmental protection and restoration, and prevented us in 2017 from carrying out population verifications, providing documentation, and training government officials on refugee status determination as originally planned.
In the last few years, some Burundian refugees have also decided to return home, and are seeking to re-establish their lives in Burundian communities that are facing considerable economic pressures and food insecurity.
At this stage, UNHCR and partners are not promoting or encouraging refugee returns to Burundi. We are working with the relevant governments to assist those who indicate they have made a free and informed choice to return voluntarily, to do so in safety and dignity.
We are also reiterating our appeal to Burundi’s neighbours to continue to uphold their international responsibilities and commitments to receive asylum-seekers at their borders and offer protection to those who need it. UNHCR reminds States that refugees should not be forced to return to Burundi against their will.