In five thousand years of civilized human history, more than five thousand wars were identified [1], excluding the unrecorded small fights and local wars. Since the fall of the Berlin wall alone, over 4 million people have been killed in violent conflicts [2]. The present day cycle is then a cycle of violence and the social order is known as ‘violent social order’ [3] where in violence, war and poverty are cumulatively growing; marking that humanity is facing a terrible challenge of its own existence. And, still civilization in the 21^st century continues to harbor political violence, which is experienced by increasing numbers of young people [4,5].

Africa has been invariable described as a continent with: armed conflict and violence deep rooted into its socio-cultural fabrics [2], over strained history of armed conflict and resultant violence [6], recurrent reports of violence throughout all the countries [7], most haunted by armed conflicts [8], the highest statistics of violent conflicts in the world [9], suffering from an aftermath of social instability, economic crisis, war, or conflict [7], and about 6 million of the world’s 13 million refugees in 1996 that is nearly 50% [2].

Generally, the continent has suffered a variety of conflicts and general insecurities over the past half a century. Michailof, Kostner and Devictor [8] stated that that the African conflict scenery during these years can be classified into four types: Wars of independence, particularly in lusophone countries, Namibia and former Rhodesia; secessionist conflicts, such as in Senegal (Casamance, since the mid- 1980s), the Democratic Republic of Congo and particularly the Biafran war in Nigeria (1967-70); rebellions, which have often started as local guerrilla warfare against central, often despotic governments, as in Uganda, Chad, Congo, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia; and interstate disputes across borders of African States, as in Burkina-Mali conflict (1986), Chad-Libya conflict over the Aouzou strip (1973-94), or the Cameroon-Nigeria standoff on the Bakassi Island (since 1962).

The Eastern African region in particular was observed to be an area experiencing a variety of conflicts and general insecurities including wars of independence, chronic mixture of civil wars (secessionist conflicts and rebellions), interstate disputes or wars across borders, breakdown of states, and material and human dislocations [8] with more than 5 million people died as the result of conflict and associated violence over the last 15 years [10]. The North-South Sudanese conflict, with its genesis dated back to the turn of centuries, is rather of a complex texture; one time a fight against marginalization (religious, political, governance, economic, racial etc.), another time a movement for independence, and now turning into a full scale inter-ethnic armed conflict.

Today, civil conflicts, which increased in intensity in the 1990s and progressively involved neighboring countries and regional powers, have continued to exist in Africa. However, in a continent plagued by violent conflicts and the general absence of peace, there are a number of scholarly concerns to be raised. There is a continuous documentation that very little scientific research has been done [6] in a context-related manner. Hence, peace and conflict resolution researchers have not yet found pertinent answers to the causes, reasons, and explanations [6] that would help explaining armed conflicts in different parts of the globe. Less research exists on the complex process of reconstructing nations damaged by civil war [11].

In fact, theories and research are gradually emerging in the field of conflict scholarship in the last few years. Yet, the scholarly inquiry in the field of post-conflict development and reconstruction remains to be unreliable, incomplete, and underreported [12]. Such theories, research and practice have focused to a large extent and quite narrowly on psychopathologies and social reproductions of armed conflicts [13]. That is, all the existing efforts at conflict theorizing and empirical investigations generally converge to an understanding that armed conflicts subject humans to myriad negative consequences including displacement, poverty, homelessness, exploitation, political instability, interrupted education, unhealthy living conditions, discrimination, lack of resources [13]; psychological distress [6] and post-traumatic stress [14] that endangers children’s social, moral, and healthy personality development in many ways [14]. These undesirable consequences can of course accompany armed conflicts but these experiences seem over determined [15,16], suggesting the need to broaden inquiry beyond acute phases of violence to the devastating residual effects across time and space to study resilience [4,13,17].

A related concern is if such universalizing negative views of armed conflict can be tenable in all contexts. It is believed that the impacts as well as recovery from impacts would be as diverse in their nature as the people who fight them. The purpose, duration, intensity and, context of an armed conflict would give either a protective shield or a predisposing arm to the malevolent effects of the war. For example, if people fight for justice and were victimized for this just cause, the perceived impacts and/or resiliency from them is likely to have a good prognosis particularly among subjects who decipher the process. In the same way, if the armed conflict has been less intense and occurred for shorter duration, then impacts may not be severe and recovery could be much easier.

The context of the armed conflict still plays a paramount role shaping the course of the conflict and its outcome. For example, if the armed conflict occurs amidst bystanders rather than nations standing by the side of the victims, then the impacts are likely to be more intense. In the same way, armed conflicts that occur in a cultural context retaining sharing, interdependence, and collective survival would unleash much lesser impacts than those which do not exalt these patterns of coexistence. That is, in as much as armed conflicts impact on socio-cultural, economic and psychological profile of persons, these profiles of a nation would also define an armed conflict, i.e., its nature and course, impacts, and recovery from it.

In tune with this view, we may need to deconstruct the universalizing view of armed conflicts and attempt to explore the impacts of the war in South Sudan along with the genesis of the problem to establish its context. This research then attempts to discuss the brief historical background of the conflict to establish the genesis of the problem and then proceeds on to analyzing the general impacts of this armed conflict on South Sudan at large. With this as a background, it then makes an extensive analysis of the impacts of the conflict on children’s survival and development. Then, finally, it attempts to draw implications for intervention. In doing so, the paper is believed, additionally, to serve as an anecdote of the armed conflict at large and thereby inspire more focused, empirical and scientific research in the area by providing basic data that really lacked at the time the present research was done.

Study site

The research is basically meant to make a general assessment of the impact of the war in South Sudan at large but with a focus on Rumbek County for generating primary empirical data. Rumbeck was targeted mainly because it was believed to host the worst scenario of internal displacement [18]. The organization supporting the research was also based here to facilitate data collection. Furthermore, relative peace prevailed in the area during data collection.

Study design

Qualitative method was used to get a grasp of the general situation of the impacts of armed conflict because there has been very little research in South Sudan in general. It is believed that in a situation where little data are available about a study setting, it would be doing justice to knowledge to begin with a general survey of situations so as to clear the way and lay the foundation for further but more specific and quantitative research in the area.

Data sources

Secondary and primary data sources were employed for collecting relevant data. As regards primary sources, Key Informants were interviewed for making a general assessment of the impact of the war in South Sudan. They were composed of five informed adults; four of whom were recommended for inclusion in name by gate keepers. The fifth one was identified during FGDs in another research to have a rich knowledge, experiences and insightful arguments about South Sudan. He had an excellent command of English and was very much organized during the interview. While the first four key informants were officials in charge of different civil responsibilities in their communities (judge, police officer, school director, and social worker), the fifth one was a veteran teacher with many years of participation in conflict resolution practices. Description of the background characteristics of the key informant interviewees (age, education, job…) is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Background characteristics of the key informant interviewees.

The secondary sources included the following media talks and writings, office records and documents, statistical publications, and research reports:

1. Electronic and press media releases: for example, Kulish’s article in the New York Times, 2014; Al Jazeera’s English program casted on April 2011 and January 2012; Sudan Tribune’s plural news and views on Sudan [19]; Elbagir and Karimi’s (9 July 2011) talks in CNN) [20].

2. Government-related office documents and records: Case Register Book, 2003 [21]; Crime Register Book, 2004 [22]; School Master Book of Academic Records, 2004 [23]; ERSS (2011) [24]; Education Policy of the Government of South Sudan [25,26].

3. NGO documents and records: SCS [27,28], Human Rights Watch [29]; Save the Children UK (2004) [30]; UNHCR- South Sudan (2008) [31]; UNICEF (2000) [32]; Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) Education Estimate 2000 [33].

4. Related research in South Sudan: Belay’s [18] resilience and coping among war-affected children in eastern African countries including South Sudan, and Belay’s [34] the situation of street children in selected cities of South Sudan and educational implications.

Ethical clearance

Data collection went through some security checks from the army that finally granted the go ahead. The security office was a bit hesitant to talk about child soldiers feeling that the purpose was to spy if child soldiers were not demobilized and the SPLM could still be engaging the children for military purposes. Interview was interrupted by the security Head and then resumed after confirming that the research will not harm anybody. In fact, data collection from key informants proceeded after securing consent from them. They all gave their consent, were very enthusiastic, and cooperative.

Approaches

The synthesis of data from these primary and secondary sources is presented in this paper. Specific quotes were not provided unless absolutely necessary. The analysis and reporting are organized as per the research objectives. It begins with the presentation of the general profile of the study area; i.e. a brief historical sketch and the general impact of the armed conflict. Having laid the general context, an attempt is then made to analyze the impacts of the war on children. Finally, implications were discussed for intervention.

Historical context of the armed conflict in South Sudan

Data obtained from the five key informants and related literatures are integrated in this section to give a historical account of the war in south Sudan.

Fought in the spirit of liberating the dominantly Christian South from the ethnic, political and economic marginalization and religious subjugation of the dominantly Muslim North [24,27], this war was the cumulative effect of a number of lower scale conflicts that prevailed in the area over the years. According to the Key informants, the war dates back to the early 19^th in which Egyptians invaded Northern Sudan in 1821 to collecting slaves, cattle, and ivory; explore the source of the Nile River and in pursuit of the Mamaluks. Mamaluks were the former rulers of the Egyptian Kassala province who were crushed later by Mohammed Ali and run to Sudan.

The Egyptians in fact succeeded in getting slaves, money and cattle and continued ruling Sudan from 1820 to 1881 with all exploitation, oppression and discontent. And this dictated Mahadi to rebel against them staging a movement called Mahdiya (Mahdi was the grandfather of Sadik Almhadi in Northern Sudan who ruled Sudan from 1881 to 1898). Mahadi launched a fight in 1884 from the north to fight Egyptians; but without including the then Southern provinces and this exclusion created the first split between the Southern and the Northern provinces.

The Egyptian and British soldiers together put down Mahadi’s revolt in 1984/5 (after the Mahadiyans killed General Gordon Pasha; a British General who came to rule Sudan) and, established a condominium government in Sudan in 1898 in which both the British and Egyptians were to rule Sudan and this Anglo- Egyptian Condominium ruled Sudan until 1956. Mohammed Kalifa, blackman, was the one who took over the reign from 1845-1898 when Mahadi died. During Kalifa’s rule, the tribes in Sudan were fighting because of the conflict that was already started and also because the Northerners did not want the blackman to succeed Mehadi.

During the British and Egyptians rule, there was an implicit divide and rule policy whereby the North and the South were administered separately and were treated differently. Above all, the British did not want people from the North to go to the South and those in the South to go to the North. In fact, the Northerners were more favored and supported economically, socially, and educationally; which latter boosted their status over the South and then gave them “legitimacy” to rule the South when the British left in 1955.

By the time the British left, it was promised that the Southerners will be granted federation. But, the Northerners rejected this deal and then begun to rule the South with all its oppression and marginalization. For example, the Northerners filled in most of the jobs in the government immediately after independence except only for 9 officials in the Government from the South. Because of this, the Southerners felt that they were deceived and hence started mutiny. Soldiers mutinied in the Southern town of Torit in 1955. This was a significant rift that continued until 1965 when, as a result of increasing involvement of politicians, students, workers, and army officers, the first liberation front of the Southern Sudan – the Anya Anya-emerged; a group of southerners staging mutiny. They took up arms and went to the forest to fight the North. Anya Anya is a word from Equatoria which means a ‘poisonous snake’. The group waged war against the North until 1972, when Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia brokered a peace accord, came to be known as the Addis Ababa Agreement [27]. This agreement apparently put dawn the Anya Movement granting southerners the autonomy to rule themselves until such time that the Northern Government violated it 10 years later in 1983.

Relative peace prevailed in the area until war broke out again in 1983 in the Agar community between the Khartoum Government and people in the South because of an alleged injustice and oppression of the South, and increasingly perceived threats of being Islamized and Arabized by the North [27]. From the late 1970s, there was a continued and severe discontent over the redrawing of borders between the South and the North, the introduction of the Sharia Law, the proposed shifting of oil refineries from Bentiu in Upper Nile to Northern Sudan and the division of the South into three regions [27]. So, Southerners rejected the deal, took up arms and begun to fight again. This was the basis for the formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its military wing called the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLM/A has then launched an armed resistance against the Sudan for over a couple of decades gradually gathering a balance of power that pressurized Khartoum to sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. The CPA has in fact, paved a fertile ground for rebuilding South Sudan and then establishing it as an independent state that became a reality in the referendum conducted in 2011. Relative peace prevailed until tribal clashes erupted again in December 2011 in Jonglei between the Nuer Army and the Murle whereby the former declared to wipe out the later. A more interesting scenario can be noted in SPLM’s internal political dynamics being tied with inter-ethnic conflicts. SPLM was split into two–one faction keeping the original name-led by John Garang and the other becoming the Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SPDF). Since the Mid 1990s, there were further splits between the SPLM/A and the SPDF [27] that peaked in 2013, causing heavy casualties among civilians [29,35]. There was a fear that interethnic conflicts would even become more rampant in South Sudanese soil in the years to come, mainly as a result of competitions over resources, and triggered by the perception that political power in Juba is dominated by relatively few ethnic groups [24].

Currently, South Sudan is at war with at least seven armed groups in 9 of its 10 states, with tens of thousands displaced. Inter-ethnic warfare has been widespread, predating and extending the war for independence. But, for our present purpose, we shall limit ourselves to the impacts of the armed conflict that occurred until the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

General impacts of the war in South Sudan

General scenario: The war in South Sudan was one of the most destructive civil wars in Eastern African Region that involved aerial bombardment and ground attacks on civilians, communities, infrastructure, and natural resources [24] eventually causing massive killings [24], cross boarder migration [27,31], and internal displacement [18]; the social crisis and psychological trauma of the survivors are even hard to imagine. As an aftermath of these experiences, South Sudan has been noted with serious under development of basic services [26,36,37]. According to the five key informants, the conflict was believed to cause killings of many personally known innocent civilians and massive displacement of fellowmen to neighboring countries. In fact, a large number of people were forced to flee their home; countless of them died in the war and war-related famine. Many people became homeless, parents became separated from their children and this resulted in orphaning many children. Starvation, disease, injury, poverty, and disruption of and under-development of social services became commonplace. The conflict has also resulted into more tribalism within the South itself and had distorted harmony among the people. Narratives also held that the war as a factor behind tribalism within the South itself.

Under these disabling circumstances, it is natural that the weakest are the victims...” when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”. The implications and effects of war are expected to have far reaching consequences on children because targeting ordinary persons and their way of life is the modus operandi of modern wars. According to key informants, the armed conflict has increased the vulnerability of children and women; caused, perpetuated or accentuated abuse of children’s right. We are to briefly discuss these impacts of the war in better detail with particular focus on children. These impacts of the war are presented in better details with particular focus on themes that emerged from interviews: Displacement, material deprivations, abuses, child streetism and violent behaviors of children themselves.

Displacement and population dynamics: About 58% of the

was below 17 years of age. Furthermore, there was more number of women than men (twice as many women as men in the adult population above 17 years of age) contrary to the fact that there were 20% fewer girls than boys under five years of age and 12% fewer girls than boys in the 6-17 years of age category. Death in conflict and displacement could be the reason [28]. In fact, the conflict has undoubtedly caused cross boarder migration and internal displacement among civilians. Based on 2002 estimates, there were a total of 3,400,000 IDP/refuges of South Sudan origin [27]. The number of returned children (aged 5-17 years) from refugee camps in the neighboring countries from 2006 to august 2008 was only 49,160 children (51.65% boys) [31]. This displacement was full of hardships, uncertainties and with multiple destinations.

Internally displaced people within Sudan (south and north) are estimated to be 2 million people [28]. The worst scenario of internal displacement can be noted from local informants in the Agar Community, Rumbeck. The community was cattle keepers and farmers. War broke in the Agar community in 1983 between the Khartoum government and people in the South. Most destructed area in the South, many houses torn up during the armed conflict, and hence, many people were war-affected; some were internally displaced and lived mixed with indigenous people. Sample was taken from four areas or locations this community is found: Mallual kodi, Malualkom, western part of Rumbek Town, Makurisic, northern part of Rumbek Town, and Akuach. Mallual kodi had a general population of 32, 400 persons of whom 4000 children were war-affected. About 4,000 persons were generally displaced from this community but now live mixed with the indigenous community. Once seriously attacked by the northern force and the houses were burned, many people were killed. Malualkom, western part of Rumbek Town, was an area accommodating the internally displaced persons. It accommodated IDPs who had escaped fighting from Western Upper Nile of Bentiu, 502km South of Khartoum. It had a general population of 28,160 of whom 500 were war-affected and about 400 were displaced persons now living mixed with the indigenous community. In Makurisic, northern part of Rumbek Town, there was a general population of 528,160 of whom 2,000 children were war-affected. People experienced violence, hunger and other warrelated causes and there were about 4,000 displaced persons who live mixed with indigenous people. Akuach had a general population of 58,340 of whom about 10,000 children were war-affected. The Town was completely destroyed by the Northern force and people had to live under trees. About 2,000 people were displaced from this community [18].

Despite all the agonizing experiences during this internal dislocations, it was learned, however, that the IDPs were successfully integrated and living with the indigenous community [18]. The supporting hand of the host communities were evident as the culture at work cherishes sharing of resources (no matter how small they are at one’s disposal), interdependence of life, and collectivism.

Deprivations: The key informants have underscored that life during the war was characterized by acute deprivations of resources (materials, financial provisions, and assets) subjecting them to a hand-to-mouth subsistence economy, starvation, and dependency to NGO support. Social services were seriously underdeveloped; though much sought in South Sudan. They noted inadequate and poor health, communication (telephone, transportation), educational (institutions, personnel, materials), administrative and legal services. In fact, evidences also indicate that South Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world [18], with a weak and uneven economic base, severely underdeveloped infrastructure and highest maternal mortality and illiteracy rates in the world until 2011 [20]. Whereas national statistics reflect some economic growth indicators that are particularly related to investment in the oil sector, South Sudan has not registered any significant growth rate from independence in 1956 to CPA [20]. The economy has been stifled by nearly a non-existent infrastructure, an alarming rent seeking of the young government bureaucracy, and a shared debt (of course with Sudan) of approximately 38 billion dollars [38,39].

Impacts of the war in South Sudan on Children: Abuse and maltreatment

Orphaning children: An impact of the war on children commonly raised by key informants was separation of children from parents because of death and displacement. According to the Southern Sudan health survey [26], an estimated 10.6% of children were not living with a biological parent in the general population (Table 1). In a research conducted on street children in South Sudan, about 58.5% of the sampled children indicated that their biological parents are not living together and this is mainly because either one or both of them were deceased. In fact, the proportion of those living without parent/s was much lower (36.96%) in the data obtained from the Quick Child Inventor outcome. Taking this latter data as a conservative estimate, it would mean, as indicated earlier, that out of 10 street children at least 3 to 4 were without one or both parent/s in the cities of South Sudan.

The problem was so severe that the Government has established an independent office, ‘Southern Sudan War Disabled, Widows and Orphans Commission’ to manage the life of these children. It directs all its efforts to reach and undertake actions that aim to support, protect and care for these children. According to the policy framework, the Commission will prioritize on four areas that are believed to be most appropriate to reaching out the war orphans: research, legislation, financing and capacity building and programs, and coordination and partnership [40,41]. In fact, the office hasn’t made any significant stride until the time of data collection as it was under establishment in many ways.

Displacement of children and the lost boys of South Sudan: An impact of the war on children commonly raised by participants and, in fact, widely known across South Sudan, was the massive cross boarder displacement of civilians and the ensuing story of ‘the lost boys’. The armed conflict was believed to have exposed a sizeable proportion of the South Sudanese young boys to a saddening displacement filled with hardships (i.e. long journeys with bare feet, without food and water, being left alone to fend themselves from beasts, bandits, and exposure to armed enemies), uncertainties, and multiple destinations. For example, between 1987 and 1989, some 10,000 boys walked for several weeks to refugee camps in Ethiopia. After the fall of the Military Regime in Ethiopia, the majority marched onto a site near the border between Sudan and Kenya. They were later transferred to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in May 1992. No one knows for sure what happened to these lost boys in the process or afterwards. It is possible that some could have returned to their homeland, others could have joined the army and the rest could have been transferred to third refugee destinations in USA and Europe [27].

Specific encounter with some of the lost boys of South Sudan have indicated, however, that some of those who have migrated to USA were able to develop an amazing resilience that has enabled them to think and work for the wellbeing of their fellowmen back home. A case in point is the founder of the Sudanese American Orphaned Rehabilitation Organization (SAORO). This organization is located in Panring County and its principal office is in the State of Colorado, USA. It was founded in 2006 by one of the lost boys who parted from their parents forcibly during the Sudanese civil war in 1980s and went first to Ethiopia, then to Kenya, and finally to USA in 2001. SAORO’s mission is to build and operate the Gumriak Orphanage and community school respectively in Panring County (SAORO). The focus areas for implementation have been and will be education, rehabilitation, water (borehole) drilling, planting of trees, gardening, and initiating some services to the community. Long-term plans are expansion of buildings/ premises for the orphanage center, program expansion to some payams, community sensitization and awareness raising about HIV/AIDS, sanitation, selfreliance, rearing some livestock, and reaching out a larger number of children at risk (SAORO). The short-term plan involves ensuring basic needs, operational materials, equipment, and facilities; laying bricks for construction; planting more trees and gardening [34].

The vulnerability of the children and abuse of their rights during the war was still evident from UNICEF’s [32] documentation on childhood disability, child soldering, abduction, and schooling problems. Data obtained from this UNICEF’s source and many others are generally summarized in Table 2.

Table 2: Some impact indicators of the war in South Sudan on civilians and children.

Childhood disability: it was estimated that about 9% of children under five, and 12% of children between the ages of 5-17 years had some form of disability or impairment (pp. 97-105) attributable to the war and war-induced malnutrition. The disabilities surveyed were surprisingly only four types: hearing/vision, hand/leg, speaking, and mental. One can easily imagine how big these proportions could be if other areas of disability were included in the survey.

Child soldiering: child soldiering was a common practice particularly in the early years of the SPLA. It was learned that the community chiefs were the ones doing the recruitment of incumbent soldiers in general. However, in many parts of South Sudan, chiefs explained that they often recruited children into the army since they (children) did not pay taxes. Chiefs had to contribute taxes in the form of good and cash to the local administration and to the war efforts. Since adult males were the principal sources of taxes, recruiting them would mean a decline in resources. Less tax meant that a chief was inefficient and he would lose his position. The chiefs met their quota of soldiers by recruiting children”. In fact, most recruitment seemed to have taken place from orphans (though the practice was on quota basis from all family types) and refugee camps from neighboring countries [27]. Generally, over 38,000 children of less than 18 years of age were estimated to have been conscripted into the army in South Sudan from 1985 to 1999; most recruitments seemed to have focused on orphans (though the practice was on quota basis from all family types) and refugee camps from neighboring countries.

In fact, the practice was shortly banned and many child soldiers were demobilized and integrated into their communities after being provided with different kinds of rehabilitation and integration services. Both the SPLA and SPDF had successfully worked towards the demobilization process. With this demobilization of child soldiers in 1998, the need for finding a safe place for the children became apparent so that they can continue their education. From interviews held with Key informants, particularly the Head Master of Deng Nyal Primary School, the very purpose of opening this primary school was to cater for the educational needs of this group of children. The school begun with 310 demobilized child soldiers. In 2001, the number increased to 540. In this same year, schools were expanded to accommodate the increasing number of demobilized child soldiers. After the demobilization and schooling program, a new scheme was started to reunify children with their parents such that the number of demobilized children in the boarding school reducing to 200. These 200 children were all orphans with parents or even relatives unknown.

Child abduction: Abduction of children was another war-induced problem. It was estimated that almost 35,000 children were abducted by the Northern Militia from South Sudan from 1985 to 1999. The largest numbers were reported in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile regions; areas which were known for frequent tribal raids by the Northern Militia. Nobody knows the whereabouts of these children till today. One of the key informants (Informant 3) said that it has been very difficult to stop this practice and was still going on because it brought tremendous economic benefits. According to him, a certain international NGO was once formed to trace and return these abducted children back home but instead of curbing the problem it ended up aggravating it. What happened was that this NGO declared to give money for people who can help locating the lost children. In reality, this meant that the same person abducting and selling a child was to get money locating the same child.

Schooling - educational impacts: Among the multifarious malevolent effects of war in South Sudan, the single most poignant story repeatedly noted by key informants pertains to children’s schooling: enrollment, attendance and performance.

As regards enrollment, different estimates also show that the proportion of non-school going children were extremely the highest in the world: about 80.31% [34], 96.5% [32], and 92.5% [33]. A more recent postwar estimate indicates that the net attendance rate for primary school-aged children is 15.8% while that of secondary school was 2.4% [26].

With respect to age of attendance, the data obtained from the School Master Book [23] of Deng Nyal Primary School revealed that the age of beginning and completion of primary education were respectively 13 and 19 years (Table 1). The figures are suggestive of too much delay in the enrollment of primary education.

The third problem was school dropout. The same UNICEF survey suggests that 10.3% of those enrolled did not attend school for more than three days a week. Of those who were not enrolled, over 86% had never enrolled in schools at all. According to this same survey, the barriers for school participation were domestic chores (30% of girls), productive work (25% of boys), and lack of school materials and cloths. In another survey, attempts were made to reveal the factors that limit the school participation of girls and boys [40]. According to this survey, distance from school, domestic work, and school fees were amongst the factors affecting school enrolment.

More importantly, destruction of schools during the war had resulted in conducting teaching under the shade of trees in those schools that resumed work or had forced children to travel long way to access schools. According to SRRA’s [35] estimate, there were a total of only 1,019 primary and 15 secondary schools at that time. A research conducted by the New Sudan Center for Statistics in Association with UNICEF (in MoEST, 2006/7) [25] also found that children in South Sudan have the least access to primary education in the world (MoEST). Furthermore, the first post war assessment of education sector was conducted, known as Rapid Assessment of Learning Spaces (RALS), in all the 10 South Sudan states by MoEST and UNICEF (in MoEST, 2006/7) [25]. This assessment indicated that the vast majority of learning spaces were found to provide insufficient cover for children and teachers.

Nobody denies that schools and other social institutions are as yet targets of destruction in modern wars. It is a luxury to think of education while schools are successively targeted in armed conflicts. It is not only that children run away from schools in search of safe places under these conditions, but it is also that they may even involve in armed conflicts themselves. According to Chief Dut, war has affected much of their culture because people have come wild [27]. He believes that the boys are confused. Many do not want to go to school. They just want to fight [27]. School performance was the fifth problem. Although students may find access to school and decide to attend, there are lots of disruptive factors affecting the smooth flow of the teachinglearning process. The exam result of students at Deng Nyal School in the first semester of 2004 suggests that the mean score was far below the expected average in all the primary grades. And, this was especially saddening in girls.

Malnutrition: This economic hardship was more evident at the household level. Children have suffered from material deprivations and severe economic hardships, mainly due to the war-induced poverty. The children once described life at the homestead as full of hunger all the time; hard living conditions; food problems; acute financial shortage to cover school expenses; lack of clothes... [34]. However, the majority of children were able to cope with the problem working to generate income either regularly (45.2%) or sometimes (32.7%) with the approval of their parents (41.3%) just to support their family members (40.3 %) [34].

Mistreatment at home: It was found out in one research that war-induced economic and material constraints had created a sense of frustration among some parents that in turn resulted in domestic violence against children [34]. In this research, children also indicated that they were experiencing different kinds of verbal, nonverbal, and emotional mistreatments. The responses suggested that only 8% of the children have reported to rarely experience mistreatments. On the contrary, about 85% had experienced at least one mistreatment always or often. About 6% of them have reported that they had experienced different kinds of mistreatments. In fact, child maltreatment is more cultural and what war might do is to predispose rather than suppress the problem.

Child streetism: In a survey conducted on the situation of street children in South Sudan, it was shown that with the termination of the bloodiest war in Sudan time has clicked on to harvesting the seed that was planted during the war. One such negative harvest was child streetism. It was noted that child streetism was only emerging and didn’t not seem to have a long history in South Sudan. It was indicated that there were an estimated number of 34,980 street children only in six cities suggesting that the problem seemed to grow at an alarming rate [34]. According to key informants, war-induced displacement was the major contributing factor for streetism. It was reported that the war has orphaned many children, disrupted families, incapacitated their ability to meet children’s need, and caused problems that virtually pushed the children out to the streets. Related research has also indicated that children were in street life because of such reasons as: separated from parents during the war; war and migration; no one to depend on; due to war; my parents were killed during the war; no care at home; no parental care/ support; my parent/s was dead; my father was killed in a battle, separated from my mother; parents were dead and I was not having any supporter; death of my mother; death of my father; death of parents; death of my parents…Family details of these children still corroborated this same idea but in a better detail [34].

Violence among children: This can still be regarded as a second negative “harvest” of the armed conflict. According to one Key Informant (a police officer), many children were involved in group violence and crime for the first time in the history of South Sudan. In support of this view, other participants (i.e. interviewees and discussants) also indicated that this was mainly engendered by the prevailing normlessness and lawlessness, loose or non-existent adult supervisions, and children’s need to cope with their material needs. Another Key Informant (a county judge) also said, “In my experience as a judge, I have come to see that many children are involved in theft and robbery to feed them”. Being more specific about these children, he said, “When I was in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, many of the child crimes were committed by the orphans”. He narrated a poignant story of an orphaned child who, being charged of stealing had the following to say before the court, “My father was killed in a battle. My mother died soon as a result of chronic illness. My three siblings were abducted by Arabs. I have no one to count on. I stole so that I can survive. If you sentence me to prison, this is good because I will be given a shelter and food in the prison”.

According to SCS [27], this same problem was a major reason for children to join the army and fight, “During SCS work with child soldiers in 1998, it was established that more than 60 percent of the 288 children in the Leer … district…. camp had joined the military out of their own volition during the inter-factional fighting. Their main reason… was to get food easily. By using the guns, they were able to feed themselves. This group came to be known as the “Goat Army” as they were looting goats from the community to feed themselves and their families” (P.9). According to the Judge, this problem of poverty still caused difficulties in demobilizing child soldiers. The demobilized child soldiers were seen to rejoin the army, simply because they could hardly find anything to eat. A direct effect of the war on children’s behavior was expressed by Chief Dut. According to him, the war has affected much of their culture, and children have come wild; the boys were confused; many did not want to go to school; they just wanted to fight [27].

Key Informant 5 in Rumbek Town, entrusted with the task of mobilizing the community, has also expressed that the children were generally reluctant in what they did, had disrespect for people, were involved in robbery (an activity they learned from soldiers), and were less sensitive to life because they had observed people dying before their very eyes. In fact, many participants have explained that this problem of violence had gradually subsided and the children are quite okay at the moment.

The East African Sub-Sahara has been the most volatile region plagued with incessant armed conflicts over the last couple of decades. The Ethio-Eritrean border conflict forcing a significant number of people to leave their homes and properties behind; Uganda’s government fight with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the north for over 19 years in which the rebel fighters notoriously targeted civilians; frequent tribal clashes in Keneya related to land occupation (in such rural areas as Eldoret, Siya, and Mombasa) and government elections [18]; and the incessant interfactional clashes resulting into a stateless Somalia that, at the same time, has opened a door for Islamic extremists and insurgencies.

The war in Sudan fought between the dominantly Christian South and the Muslim North, is still another scenario of the volatile East African Region. In fact, this war had a very long historical presence, though there is a tendency to commonly count only on the heavy fight that took shape with the birth and leadership of the SPLM eventually culminating, nearly after a couple of decades, with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. In fact, the CPA brought peace and hope for South Sudan. It was also a promise for an independent South Sudan that was fulfilled with a public referendum in 2011. These few years were also periods of reflections on the past, present, and future of South Sudan. For example, shortly after independence, the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in Washington reflected on experiences and came up with an apocalyptic sort of view that the South Sudanese problem may not terminate with independence. In a manner that history seemed to take a share clouding on the present and future of South Sudan, it was feared that interethnic conflicts would even become more rampant in South Sudanese soil in the years that followed independence, mainly as a result of competitions over resources, and triggered by the perception that political power in Juba is dominated by relatively few ethnic groups [24]. As predicted, tribal clashes erupted shortly and thus South Sudan is now amidst warinduced turmoil despite all series of peace talks that failed to appease the soul of the war lords. Rooted in the past and racking the present South Sudan, these conflicts have, furthermore, seriously tainted even on the future of South Sudan to continue as a unified nation. This is mainly because the armed conflict was, sad enough, able to restructure the hard and software of this nation that eventually work to perpetuate and reproduce intergenerational conflict. For example, evidences have shown that the armed conflict has negatively impacted on the traditional and peaceful cultural methods of conflict resolution [41] to an extent that children were noted becoming more violent, disobedient, and difficult to communicate with [42]. The distinctive feature of the conflicts included employing more violent methods in conflict management, group and tribal conflicts being common occurrences as an extension of past enmity, present individual/ group discords, and even playful acts [42].

Undoing such deep rooted effects of war, what is called ‘peace building’, would then demand a general response involving reorientation of the social and cultural fabrics. This exercise may involve revitalizing indigenous values and practices, on the one hand, and inculcating, on the other hand, a democratic space where non-violent relations could be promoted between individuals, families, social groups and states through peace education. There has been a growing involvement of the UN in advocating the need to integrate peace education at all levels of school curricula [43] so that children would grow retaining such techniques, skills and competency as conflict resolution, conflict management and mitigation, peer mediation, nonviolent communications and similar skills [44].

Above and beyond impacting on the social and cultural fabrics, the overstrained armed conflict in South Sudan has, as the case is in other eastern African nations, still caused lots of destructions, killings, dislocations, and chaos. The impacts on children could even be far worse than any segment of the population as already presented earlier. In another related research [18], war-affected children in selected Eastern African countries (including South Sudan) were found experiencing a number of unforgettable bad experiences like sufferings, abuses, killings, and separation from significant others. Research evidences in other settings have also shown that over 90% of such children are likely to be exposed to severe traumatic life events [45] that cumulate over time thus endangering the social, moral, and personality fabrics of the child (Arpad, 2002) and ultimately predisposing him/ her to such unfortunate outcomes as suicide, depression, anxiety, alcohol, drug abuse and other chronic health problems such as hypertension and pain syndromes [44]. This would necessitate provision of some kind of counseling services to enable children with trauma work out their problems, understand themselves better and resume a normal life [46].

Despite the forgoing malevolent impacts of the armed conflict, findings in this research as well as some others have, however, brought some data implicating that children were not totally swallowed by the oddities and hardships of the war. Instead, they seemed to show a glimpse of hope towards recovery in the journey of life after the war. Integration with the host community after internal displacement, success stories of some of the lost boys, children who were able to support themselves and their families through engagement in income generating activities can be cited as cases in point. In a research conducted to examine the impact of the war on South Sudanese children’s perception of conflict and conflict resolution mechanism, some children were also found to endorse non-violent methods of conflict resolution apparently promising again a move towards recovery through time [42]. In an earlier study conducted in selected East African Countries (i.e. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan), it was found that waraffected children were relatively more resilient compared to the HIVaffected children and this was attributed to such protective factors as use of problem-focused coping skills, better views developed about the factor affecting them, and care and support received from others [18]. It is believed that the extended family system, the interdependent life style characterized by sharing of resources and problems, and the cohesive nature of tribal groups in South Sudan might have taken a share promoting resilience among the affected children. There is a need to further up such promising endeavors for a beer future.

Implications for supporting children: Although buildings may be replaced and infrastructure rebuilt, to rebuild the hearts and minds of the affected individuals requires a different kind of skilled intervention [6]. Effective measures of countering the impacts of the armed conflict are then those addressing the root causes of the problems of the armed conflict in a systemic and holistic manner rather than focusing on specific incidents and individuals; lest equate intervention work to treating symptoms. These measures need to encompass institutional, school, community, family, and individual empowerment [47].

Institutional empowerment: It is believed that proper implementation of the existing policies of sectoral ministries in South Sudan will help promoting the survival and development of war-affected children. This involves strengthening the relevant offices (such as those mentioned in the previous chapter) in terms of human power, logistics, and resources; ensuring that they streamline the problem of abused and maltreated children in their policy implementation strategies and action plans; and creating a platform where by these relevant offices would come together, discuss their respective roles and responsibilities, and workout the way forward. Towards implementation of these legislative provisions, the government can appeal to the technical, professional, and financial support of the non-government/ humanitarian agencies already operating in South Sudan. There are quite large number of NGOs in Juba alone working to support vulnerable children, families, and communities. Some of these organizations were in the field even during the war for independence. The government needs only to lay out an operational plan as to how to integrate them all towards this goal.

Community/ family empowerment: Poverty reduction would help a lot dealing with the impacts of the war on children. Poverty is the root cause of many social problems including educational and material neglect. Hence, there is a need to work out for increased government and donor support for poverty alleviation programs that incorporate investment in community social capital (including psychosocial support) as well as economic capital. Poverty reduction can be effectively addressed through employment generation for families and familyfriendly small-funds management training and micro-lending programs [48]. Welfare and social security scheme: Government needs to implement welfare and social security support scheme as a top priority particularly for full orphaned and vulnerable children; chronically sick parents, and communities devastated by war and war-induced displacement. Community integration: Holistic integration (livelihood, cultural, psychosocial, political, religious…) schemes, and follow up and monitoring mechanisms must be in place to see to it that refugee children, demobilized child soldiers, and displaced children are fully and sustainably integrated in to their communities. Community parenting: responsible community involvement in taking care of orphans and disadvantaged children so that they may not join street life; Community policing: intervening, reporting and dealing with child abuse.

School empowerment: In the same way that quality education is a key to development, incorporation of relevant, practical, and purposive peace education in school curricula at all levels can still help not only in reducing the incidence of group fights, bullying, school rape, and violence in schools, but also in building a peaceful society in the long-term. According to Ssenkumba [44], such school-based peace education program needs to be incorporated into school programs over time encompassing at least three major components: what is taught and learned in classrooms; Student centered peace activities and community components so that peace education emanates from the school to the community.

Incorporation of life skills education is also helpful to build children’s problem solving skills, healthy interpersonal relationships, and non-violent conflict resolution techniques such as peer mediation. Implementing the school feeding program already promised in the Education Policy is also much helpful in improving school retention mainly because school children do not any more need to make themselves absent from school and go to work to feed themselves. In fact, priority should in this case be given to those children who are more vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Individual empowerment: Helping children and parents acquire basic life skills (problem solving, help giving and seeking, negotiation and conflict resolution…) would reduce the incidence of disruptive and violent methods and relationships at home that could possibly extend to school and community lives at large. Establishing and providing counseling services in schools, as promised in the education policy [25], would also contribute a lot supporting children staggering to work out the war-induced post-traumatic stress. This in turn requires training school personnel in counseling psychology, including relevant courses in teacher education programs, and enlightening school leaders in guidance and counseling education so that they would pay due regard to the implementation of school counseling. In the South Sudanese context.

Experiences from Uganda can be borrowed to sketch out the goal and contents of such school-based counseling services. A research done in Uganda about the counseling needs of war-affected children have revealed that counseling services are considered crucial for proper adjustment of students that were both directly and indirectly affected by the war. Such counseling programs would be more preferred if carried out to provide students with opportunities to develop knowledge and appreciation of themselves (personal domain), relationship skills, ethical standards and a sense of responsibility (social domain), learning skills, attitudes, and goals (educational domains); and finally information that would enable them to make decisions about life and career opportunities (career domain). According to Ssenkumba [44], students and teachers alike have indicated a strong demand for counseling programs that raise self-awareness, Including understanding and appreciation of self, understanding the emotional and physical dangers of abuse, HIV/AIDS and sex education, dating and relationship issues, time managements, coping with peer pressure, decision making, handling crisis and managing life’s events; interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, peer counseling, career exploration, school adjustment, investigating the world of work, job seeking and job keeping skills.

The armed conflict in South Sudan has a long historical presence and is clouding on the present and future of the peace environment. Because of its longer presence, it has, above and beyond direct impacts, obscured the inherent indigenous peaceful methods of conflict resolution. The direct impacts were in fact extensively examined in this report particularly in terms of violations of children’s rights and needs for survival and development. Orphaning children (because of parental death and/ or separation), displacement-induced hardships, childhood disabilities, unprotected childhood (child abduction, abuse and mistreatment), neglect of basic needs (food, shelter, education), and premature induction into adult roles (child soldering, child work) are just some of the problems discussed. In fact, some evidences also indicate possibilities for recover from the problems over time. It is suggested that an all-encompassing, systemic, and problem-focused than symptom-focused approach is helpful to avert the historical trend as well as the already done impacts of the war. Such an approach is envisaged to integrate communal, institutional, school, familial, and individual needs.