sex trafficking. South Sudanese and foreign business owners entice men and women from these countries, as well as South Sudanese women and children, with offers of employment opportunities in hotels, restaurants, and construction; many are forced to work for little or no pay or are subjected to sex trafficking. Kenyan and Ugandan children are subjected to domestic servitude and forced labor in construction and street vending in South Sudan. Local civil society organizations reported instances of trafficking continued to increase during the reporting period; with a continuation of violence driving some foreigners to flee the country, local observers reported a greater proportion of sex trafficking victims are women and girls from South Sudan. Some traffickers may operate in organized networks within the country and across borders. Authorities occasionally assisted traffickers in crossing international borders, and some officials subjected women and girls to domestic servitude; others purchased sex from child trafficking victims, facilitated the prostitution of children, or protected establishments that exploited victims in the sex trade.
Violent conflict continued throughout the year, resulting in the displacement of more than two million people and orphaning an unknown number of children; these groups were at increased risk of trafficking. Unaccompanied minors in refugee camps or those moving between camps, particularly while crossing the Kenya- South Sudan border, were vulnerable to abduction for sex or labor trafficking. Inter-ethnic abductions, as well as abductions by external criminal elements, continued between some communities in South Sudan, especially in Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states. Some abductees were subsequently subjected to domestic servitude, forced animal herding, or sex trafficking.There have been previous reports of Sudanese slave traders abducting South Sudanese girls, particularly in Upper Nile state and forcing them into domestic servitude or selling them into other forms of slavery in Khartoum or other urban centers. During the now-concluded North-South civil war, members of the Missiriya and Rizeigat ethnic groups abducted and enslaved thousands of Dinka women and children and a smaller number of Nuban children. Some of those enslaved remain in Sudan with their captors.
Prior to the outbreak of conflict in December 2013, the government’s security forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), had made tangible progress in demobilizing child soldiers. The children who remained were operating largely in support roles and few were involved in active fighting. In 2014, the SPLA’s recruitment and use of child soldiers, often by force, significantly increased.The UN estimated there were approximately 12,000 child soldiers within the SPLA, as well as in armed opposition groups in South Sudan as of December 2014; most were between 15 and 16 years old, but some were as young as 11. Between April and September 2014, the SPLA forcefully recruited children in Greater Upper Nile and Unity states; the UN reported one senior military leader in the SPLA initiated a mobilization campaign targeting children in schools. In Koch, Unity state, the SPLA forcefully recruited 70 boys and an unknown number of adults.The UN verified 23 girls working as servants in SPLA military barracks outside of Malakal, Upper Nile state. In June 2014, UNICEF verified at least 250 children within the SPLA’s ranks and in February 2015, armed soldiers affiliated with the SPLA abducted as combatants 40 boys, some as young as 13, from an internally displaced persons camp in Upper Nile state.The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which led peace talks between the government and the opposition during the reporting period, also reported seeing child soldiers in

the SPLA in Unity state.The UN reported observing child soldiers in military uniform and carrying firearms with the South Sudan Wildlife Service, comprising primarily former SPLA soldiers.The UN verified eight boys affiliated with the South Sudan National Police Force (SSNPS). NGO and UN officials acknowledged sex trafficking and forced labor of children associated with the SPLA may still occur.
During the reporting period, the SPLA integrated into their ranks one militia with significant numbers of child soldiers. DavidYauYau, the militia commander of the South Sudan Democratic Movement/ Army’s Cobra Faction (SSDM/A-CF), had approximately 3,000 children under his command when his forces were integrated into the SPLA in May 2014.The SPLA agreed on the full integration of YauYau and his soldiers on the condition all child soldiers under his command be demobilized prior to integration; the demobilization was carried out in partnership with an international organization. In February 2015, the SPLA integrated Johnson Olony, a Shilluk militia leader, whose militia included child soldiers. Some of Olony’s officers are in the midst of integration; however, his enlisted troops have not yet started the integration process.The SPLA reportedly insisted all child soldiers under Olony’s command be demobilized prior to a full integration.
Child soldiers were also present in large numbers within the SPLA in Opposition (SPLA-IO) and groups affiliated with the opposition; the UN estimated the White Army, a civilian fighting force, recruited most of the remaining 9,000 child soldiers, some of which participated in active fighting.The SPLA-North (SPLM/ A-N), a Sudan-based group formerly aligned with the SPLA and reportedly continuing to receive support from the South Sudanese government, conducted periodic campaigns in which it forcibly recruited adults and children in refugee sites in South Sudanese territory, including in Yida, Unity State and Maban, Upper Nile State.The SPLM/A-N reportedly used child soldiers in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan to fight against the Sudan Armed Forces and aligned militias. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continued to harbor enslaved South Sudanese children in neighboring countries and exploited them as cooks, porters, combatants, and for sexual slavery.
The Government of South Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.The number of child soldiers recruited and used, at times by force, by the SPLA significantly increased during the reporting period.The government formally recommitted to an action plan to eliminate the recruitment and use of child soldiers by 2016; however, after signing the recommitment and through the end of the reporting period it continued to recruit child soldiers, at times by force.The government did not hold SPLA officers criminally accountable for the unlawful recruitment and use of children.While the government reported investigating five suspected traffickers, such efforts appear negligible in light of the significant trafficking problem within South Sudan.The government did not provide adequate protective services for trafficking victims and continued to indiscriminately arrest and imprison individuals for prostitution, including child sex trafficking victims.