Unamid welcomes JEM’s renewed stance against child soldiers

On 30 September, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) issued a renewed Command Order prohibiting the recruitment and use of children in its ranks.

In a press release today, the AU-UN Mission in Darfur (Unamid) welcomes the JEM Command Order that instructs all JEM members to adhere to the international norms and standards governing the protection of children and observe all the provisions of UN Security Council resolutions on children in armed conflict.

The recruitment and use of children is considered a serious crime under international law and the 2010 Sudan Child Act. The JEM leadership calls upon its field commanders to extensively disseminate the document.

The first decision to ban the recruitment of child soldiers came after JEM, the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW), and the SLM faction led by Minni Minawi, met with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in Austria in May this year. As an outcome, these Darfuri armed movements issued a Joint Statement in which they committed to continue to take all necessary steps to protect children.

“This is a significant step towards phasing out this negative phenomenon in the Darfur conflict,” Unamid’s Acting Joint Special Representative (AJSR), Ambassador Abiodun Bashua, reiterated. “Unamid shall continue to engage all parties to the conflict for an end to all forms of violations against children.”

Late June, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) signed the Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment for the Protection of Children from the Effects of Armed Conflict. It was the first African armed non-State actor (ANSA) to commit to child protection through this mechanism.