“I ran, run, but they managed to catch up with me. Sekpo Pkeo* was only 10 years old when he was abducted by an armed group and enlisted as a soldier child in 2014, in South Sudan. The 21 -year -old told his story to 20 Minuteson the occasion of International Day. Sekpo had trouble making your way through the streets of Yambio, until the telephone meeting.
The South Sudanese benefited from a program of the NGO World Vision to readjust, after five years in an armed group, but in South Sudan, violence remains omnipresent. During the night, new armed clashes woke up the inhabitants and armed men continue to wander the streets. Sekpo Pkeo is unfortunately used to this type of violence.
“I couldn’t run away”
In 2014, the one who was only a little boy heard rumors that an armed group is kidnapping children in the region. At dusk, Sekpo leaves his house, accompanied by friends, to hide in the forest. “One evening, we were caught. I ran, run, but they managed to catch up with me, “recalls the young man who adds that out of the four children, he is the only one who has fallen into the hands of the armed group.
“They caught me, tied my hands in my back and took me. For three months, they kept me in detention, ”he recalls. Then his kidnappers decide to train him in combat. “They gave me a weapon and they taught me to handle it but I was watched very closely, I couldn’t run away,” he slips. On a daily basis, Sekpo does not interact with other children, deliberately isolated from each other.
Separated and threatened children
“We were not all kept in the same place because of” the incident “. It is when several children fled together. Because of “the incident” and to prevent it from happening again, they didn’t want to mix us, “said Sekpo. However, the young boy managed to make friends during the operations, these raids to which he is sent. Often Sekpo must participate in vehicle ambushes or looting private property.
The children link these “armed operations” to the reunion with their friends but also to obtaining new objects. “You could bring things back from these looting. These objects gave me a little comfort and gave me a lot of happiness but, at the camp, they regularly threatened to take them back, ”explains Sekpo. Even if the lack of freedom is total, the South Sudanese explains that most children “do not realize that life is better at home”, even if they know that some of them die on a mission.
“My friend died before my eyes”
After a few years serving this armed group, Sekpo went into operation with his best friend. The two boys, then pre -adolescents, are sent on a mission but they fall into an ambush. “We managed to run away without being killed. But we then spent hours wandering in the forest, hungry. My friend saw a mango tree and we approached to eat. Unfortunately, another ambush awaited us there. They pulled and my friend died before my eyes, ”recalls Sekpo.
Traumatized by this event, the South Sudanese decides to run away. A few weeks later, he took the opportunity of a mission to leave the forest and go to town. He finds his family who is relieved to see him alive, five years after his kidnapping. Since then, the young man has received a mechanic training of generators. “Life is not easy every day but I prefer it to the one I have experienced in the forest,” says Sekpo, who confides, however, is always haunted by his past as a child soldier.
* The name has been changed
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