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| May 31, 2008 |
Two weeks after Khartoum announced they were holding 89 children the aged 10 to 17-UNICEF was permitted to visit them. The children had forcibly recruited and abducted by the Darfur rebel group the JEM and were used in the May 10th JEM attack on Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city in which at least 220 people were killed. JEM ( Justice and Equality Movement) is militarily the strongest rebel group battling the Sudanese government in the western region of Darfur.
Sudan has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and reiterated pledges to accord the children all rights.
Reportedly the children are traumatized and some have been tortured . Eight of the children are from Chad and the rest are from Sudan. Efforts are underway to find their families.
The age of criminal responsibility in Sudan is seven but a bill has been drafted in an effort to raise the age to 12. Sudan has the right to prosecute these children if they so wish.