South Sudan is among the more tragic examples of how the United States has failed to uphold the CSPA and protect children from exploitation and harm.

The fledgling country is among the most corrupt in the world. Local power brokers—including President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, the leaders of rival factions now engaged in a 3-year-old civil war—have used their positions to plunder the country of its wealth, while subjecting their citizens to one of the most hellish humanitarian disasters on earth.

Among their many crimes, South Sudan’s security forces have been known to recruit child soldiers since the country gained independence in 2011, but recruitment increased rapidly once hostilities began between the government’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and various rebel groups associated with the opposition in December 2013.

According to the United Nations, coercion—including threats of violence against family members and attacks on villages—is widely employed to force children into combat. In 2015 alone, recruitment efforts affected more than 2,500 children. The SPLA and other government-supported armed groups were responsible for the majority of those cases. And despite appearing on the CSPA list since 2012, the U.S. government has withheld only $1.2 million of security assistance, while providing $99 million.

Obama’s failed policy on South Sudan

hmmm