A/HRC/43/56 oversaw the release in MirMir (Unity) of 32 child soldiers between the ages of 13 and 17 years, who since 2016 had been with SPLA-IO Division B.61 53. During the week of 16 September 2019, armed groups in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State reportedly released almost two dozen children to the National Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Commission, 62 which President Kiir had reconstituted by presidential decree 123/2019. The 12-member National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, mandated by the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudanto take charge in managing the reintegration of former soldiers. While the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children in certain locations is a positive development, the Commission notes with concern that recruitment is ongoing in Wau Warrap, Unity and Central Equatoria States, the latter by the National Salvation Front. All children, irrespective of where or into which faction they have been recruited, must be released immediately and with appropriate safeguards. 54. The Commission expresses its concern at the link between ongoing recruitment and ongoing hostilities, in particular regarding recruitment by the National Salvation Front in Central Equatoria. The acceleration of recruitment drives by signatories of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan and the forced recruitment of children during the period under review may further be linked to the need to meet the numbers stipulated for the cantonment of the Necessary Unified Forces (see para. 17 above). 2. Violations and alleged crimes: findings 55. Members of both SPLA-IO (RM) and government forces, including the National Security Service and the Taban Deng-allied SSPDF, conscripted children under 15 years of age into their ranks. The Commission learned in a confidential meeting held on 8 January 2020 that, while some of these children were used as cooks, guards and couriers, others actively participated in hostilities. Some recalled being trained, supplied with weapons, forced to loot and prevented from leaving training camps and battlefields in the form of death threats and intimidation. 56. The above-mentioned recruitment of children was contrary to domestic and treaty law, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, to which South Sudan acceded in September 2018, and is listed as a crime (in article 5 (b)) for children under 15 years of age in the draft statute of the hybrid court for South Sudan. 57. Similarly, article 4 (3) of the Protocol additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts (Additional Protocol II) prohibits the participation of children under 15 years of age in hostilities. The domestic laws of South Sudan further require the State to protect and ensure that the best interests of the child are always considered whenever any decision relating to him or her is made. Despite the State’s obligation to prevent, investigate and punish violations of the law and to provide redress, the Government of South Sudan has failed to uphold its duties. VII. Localized conflicts 58. Despite a general reduction in major hostilities since the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, and demonstrating further the fragility of the State apparatus, violent competition over pastoral resources escalated in localities where the rule of law was totally absent, such as in the Jur River area (Western Bahr el Ghazal), Twic (Warrap), Mayom (Unity) and Jonglei (see annex II, paras. 13–36). 59. In vast swathes of rural society where wealth is largely measured in cattle currency, adverse weather conditions characterized by bifurcated rainy and dry seasons, including 61 62 14 Report on the status of implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan for the period 1st July to 30th September 2019, para. 21. Emmanuel Kele/Deng Mou, “Government forces hand over captured child soldiers”, UNMISS, 24 September 2019.