African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) strongly condemns the violations against children by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militia in Sudan. In this release, ACJPS has documented an incident where 66 children were arrested in West Darfur by the RSF amidst allegations of recruitment of child soldiers into the armed conflict.
The children, aged between 14 to 16-years-old were arrested on 6,7 and 8 November 2023 following the seizure of the SAF military base (15th Division) in West Darfur after the RSF launched an attack on it. They were arrested from the neighboring areas including Ardmata IDP camp, Alezaa and Aljazeera neighborhoods. The children were taken to the former joint Sudanese-Chadian Forces base which was seized by RSF on 15 April 2023 where they remain detained.