A -9-year-old victim of abduction is crying tears of joy after being reunited with her parents and siblings in Kapoeta North County, Eastern Equatoria State.
Natede Lokanyim was abducted in Wokobu Payam in August 2022 by suspected youth from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.
Emmanuel Epone, the county commissioner, says it was through the efforts of Pibor authority that the child was recovered.
“She is a girl of around nine years when you estimate her age. But she is already grown and can recognize her parents,” Epone told Singaita FM on Wednesday.
He added that child protection partners like GREDO organization, UNICEF, and Save the Children International collaborated in reuniting the girl with the parents.
Meanwhile, Mary Atto, child protection officer for Save the Children International in Kapoeta North, says they received the child from GREDO organization.
She tells the local population to desist from child abduction, for it is a bad practice and against human rights.
“It is not good for the children to be abducted. So, our appeal to the communities is that do not abduct children because it is very sad to lose one’s child,” Ms Atto said.
Abductions of women and children are common practice in South Sudan, especially in greater Jonglei and Eastern and Central Equatoria.
Women and girls are abducted to give birth, boys to be trained as warriors and to join inter-communal fighting and cattle raiding.
On Tuesday, some angry youth in Kuron Boma in Kauto Payam, Kapoeta East County, barricaded the Kapoeta-Buma road in protest against killing and abduction in the area.