Child soldiers in South Sudan

South Sudan's military is "actively recruiting" children as young as 13, often by force, in the country's oil-producing north, according to a statement released by the rights watchdog HRW on Monday.

"Despite renewed promises by both government and opposition forces that they will stop using child soldiers, both sides continue to recruit and use children in combat," Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Africa director Daniel Bekele said.

HRW said that over the past month its staff had collected more than 20 witness accounts of child recruitment in the northern town of Malakal, in the state of Upper Nile. The group also said it had spoken to about a dozen teenagers or young men involved in fighting when they were under 18.

Bekele said that, in some cases, children were snatched "right outside the United Nations compound," where several thousand people had sought refuge in government-controlled Malakal.

HRW's allegations have been rejected by the government, which says standing orders forbid the army from recruiting children.

"We issued orders to the army that they should not recruit children," Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk told the Associated Press ndews agency. "I have also asked members of civil society to raise a case against any commanding officer or unit that recruits children into the (military). I have also informed the state governors to monitor and stop any commanders and army units trying to recruit children."

Some 12,000 child soldiers

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and descended into civil war two years later after President Salva Kiir of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) accused his then-deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting against him. That set off a series of retaliatory killings and led to the outbreak of a conflict which has left tens of thousands of people dead and displaced more than one million.

In August 2013, before the outbreak of the fighting, the use of child soldiers was officially banned in South Sudan, with the minimum age for recruitment or conscription set to 18. But over the course of the 14-month civil war, both government troops and rebels loyal to the vice president have faced repeated allegations of recruiting children.

According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, around 12,000 children have been used as soldiers by the army, rebels and allied militias in South Sudan over the past year.

Last month, the agency said it had negotiated the release of 3,000 child soldiers from the South Sudan Democratic Army (SSDA) Cobra Faction in the Pibor region.

nm/msh (AFP, AP, dpa)