300 Child Soldiers Released

The article linked below is very good news even though it is from South Sudan….and we always welcome good news~!!!

As you can see in the map above, the Central African Republic (CAR) shares a common border on the east side of the CAR with both South Sudan and Sudan (two separate countries). South Sudan while it is having some very serious and real problems with a civil war going on, it is a predominately Christian country. Sudan is a radical Islamic nation controlled by Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Our Area of Operation (AO) in the Central African Republic runs right up to the South Sudan border on our south east flank and up to the Sudan border on our north east flank.

From Wikipedia we learn:

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (Arabic: عمر حسن أحمد البشير‎; pronunciation: [ba'ʃiːr]; born 1 January 1944 is a Sudanese politician, the seventh president of Sudan and head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south. Since then, he has been elected three times as President in elections that have been under scrutiny for corruption. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.

Bashir funded and armed the Janjaweed for the genocide in Darfur. Sudan military forces attacked villages from the air, and then, the Janjaweed would enact a scorched earth campaign, killing everyone, burning villages and poisoning drinking water wells. The Janjaweed killed 400,000 Darfuris, many of them Christians, and displaced more than 3 million others. It was genocide in the truest sense of the word.

Both the Janjaweed and Joseph Kony’s LRA run kill, rape, pillage, and child kidnapping raids on villages in our AO in the CAR. What do they do with these innocent little kids? They either use them or sell them as child sex slaves and child soldiers. So there is no question that some of the child soldiers mentioned in the article below are from the Central African Republic.

More than 300 child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan, the second-largest such release since civil war began five years ago. Over 19,000 children are thought to have been recruited by all sides. The "laying down of the guns" ceremony for 87 girls and 224 boys on Wednesday was the first step in a process that should see at least 700 child soldiers freed in the coming weeks. The link to the article is at the bottom of this page

AWI is thrilled to hear this good news, as we are sure that you are. With 300 child soldiers released out of a probable 19,000….well there is a lot more that needs to be done. Please help us to stop these atrocities perpetuated on innocent little kids in the CAR by making a donation at the PayPal button on the right of the screen. And……please follow us on Facebook~!!!