President Barack Obama has issued waivers that continue millions of dollars in U.S military assistance for troubled nations, disappointing advocated who argue that his administration has not done enough to curb the use of children in war.
The countries that will benefit from this waiver include South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Iraq and Myanmar.
The waivers circumvent parts of the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which is meant to block certain kinds of military assistance.
South Sudan’s waiver however stands out as the use of child soldiers in the East African country has kept on despite the signing of a peace deal last year.
“South Sudan really stands out in terms of the severity of the problem,” AP news agency reports Jo Becker, the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch’s children’s rights division Becker, as saying.
She said the administration’s exemptions to South Sudan could have been more targeted as the country’s use of child soldiers has “clearly gotten worse” and has “been a complete disaster.”
The AP also reports a United Nations official to say that both the South Sudanese government and the opposition have recruited “hundreds” of children in the past month as the country prepares for another war, even after diplomats from the U.N. Security Council made the issue a high priority during their visit to the country in September.
Under the waiver, South Sudan could get about $30 million for the 2017 fiscal year, for peacekeeping support.
