हामी सबैकाे संसारन्यूज

14 Dec, JUBA – At least 15,000 children remain separated from their families or missing, five years after conflict first broke out in South Sudan in 2013, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

According to the UN agency, more than 4 million people have been uprooted by the fighting, the majority of them children.

“Every reunification is the result of months and often years of work to trace missing family members in a country the size of France but without any basic infrastructure,” Leila Pakkala, UNICEF’s regional director in eastern and southern Africa, said in a statement issued in Juba.

Since the conflict began, UNICEF and partners have reunited close to 6,000 children with their parents or caregivers, Pakkala said.

She said the suffering children have endured during the fighting has been unimaginable, but the joy of seeing a family made whole again is always a source of hope.

UNICEF said separated and unaccompanied children are more susceptible to violence, abuse and exploitation, which makes returning them to their parents an urgent priority.