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UNISFA gender officer reports children roaming, emptied village; many children attending school in Abi
Summary
A gender officer deployed to the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in April 2023 described finding children roaming the streets and an emptied village, and said many children were in Abi attending school.
A gender officer with the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said she was deployed in April 2023 and found children roaming the streets and a nearby village largely emptied of residents, with many children attending school in the town of Abi.
The account, recorded in the meeting transcript, highlights concerns the officer said she encountered about displacement, access to education and gender-based violence in areas where UNISFA operates.
“I was deployed in UNISFA in April 2023 as a gender officer internally team site. 1 of my beauty is to engage the women on the issues of ****** and gender based violence and conflict related ****** violence. My initial meeting with the people was very alarming. I saw children roaming in the streets aimlessly. I knew I had to do something,” the officer said.
She added that on a later visit to the village of Tajale she found the settlement largely empty: “When I went to Tajale the other time, I saw that the village was empty. Most of the children were not to be found. I asked, and they said they were all in Abi attending school. And so that is 1 of my highlights in UNISFA.”
The transcript does not specify the number of children observed, the dates of the visits beyond the initial April 2023 deployment, or any formal actions taken in response to the officer’s observations. No funding sources, implementing agencies beyond UNISFA, or policy directives were recorded in the provided remarks.
