Efforts are underway in the Jonglei State capital Bor to identify, trace and reunify hundreds of children separated from their families during the worst days of the South Sudan conflict.

“Upon identification and subsequent registration of a separated child, a family tracing exercise (starts),” said Samuel Manyok, UNICEF’s Youth and Adolescent Development Specialist in Bor. “The adult being traced provides consent, opinion, acceptance and preparedness to receive the child back.”

To strengthen such efforts, UNICEF was collaborating with non-governmental organizations like Nonviolent Peaceforce, Community in Need Aid (CINA) as well as the state Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, he said.

Other partners included Save the Children, Confident Children out of Conflict, INTERSOS and the Community Agribusiness Development Agency.

“These partners have specific roles to facilitate identification, documentation, tracing and family reunification of all separated, unaccompanied and missing children,” said Mr. Manyok.

He noted that the exercise covered all children below the age of 18 years who were affected by armed conflict, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or gender.

Mr. Manyok said children between five and 17 years old were the most affected, as they were more vulnerable to separation, but a few cases of children less than five years had also been recorded.

Between March and October, CINA had registered 454 such children, 44 of whom had been reunified with their families, he said.

Some 410 children who were yet to rejoin their families were benefiting from kinship foster care arrangements and other community-based support services.

He revealed that ongoing fighting in parts of the country posed a huge challenge in accessing areas where children’s parents or guardians were known to be located.

According to UNMISS Child Protection Officer Justin Rugbua, the mission had trained 122 corrections staff, military officers and military observers to help monitor, identify and report cases of separated children in the course of their duties.

Some 85 children were registered earlier in the conflict, but they later voluntarily rejoined their families in displaced people’s camps in South Sudan or in neighbouring countries, he added.

Mr. Rugbua cited one success story where UNMISS, working with the Nonviolent Peaceforce and UNICEF, had helped reunite three children from the UNMISS base in Bor with their grandfather in the Eastern Equatoria State capital Torit.

It was vital for parents and communities to ensure their children learned family and traditional leaders’ names, as well as important cultures and places to facilitate tracing and reunification, Mr. Manyok said.

“Prevention of separation of families during population movements is key,” he said. “It is the collective responsibility of parents, children and communities to ensure families are kept together during crises.”