GENEVA: Up to 16,000 children have been forced to join the fighting in South Sudan since the start of this year, the United Nations children’s agency (Unicef) said on Friday.

Despite an peace agreement in August, fighting continues to rage in the two-year civil conflict in the world’s youngest nation, with children suffering an increasingly heavy toll.

“Since January, around 16,000 children have been recruited by armed groups and the military,” Unicef spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters, adding that minors continued to be killed, kidnapped and subjected to sexual violence.

Boulierac said that some children who have joined armed groups have been forced into direct armed combat, while others are put to work as messengers or porters in extremely dangerous circumstances.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015