The former South Sudanese boy soldier said to the visiting advocate for children affected by war for the UN agency, UNICEF, “In the army I saw a lot of friends die. I would never go back to that life.  I hope that in future we will have some boys and girls who can be leaders and one day stand in front of us like you do today.”

Now UNICEF estmates that 600,000 children need psychological support as a result of the atrocities they have seen since the war began in 2013.

(Guardian Weekly, 15th January, 2016)