CEPO Director Edmund Yakani | Photo: Awan Moses/Eye Radio

A civil society activist has denounced the imprisonment of juvenile offenders with criminals in Aweil of Northern Bhar el-Gazal State with adults in the same jail cells.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization was reacting to the jailing of juveniles accused of engaging in a gang fight in the state.

“On the development in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State and Aweil in particular where children and juveniles are put in the same dentation cell with adults for a period of time, it’s wrong,” Yakani said.

In an interview with Eye Radio on Monday, the activist condemned the decision saying it is a violation of the Child Act 2011 and a violation of human rights.

Yakani says police should have sent the children to a separate facility.

“It’s a violation of the South Sudan Child Act, a complete violation of the human rights. We may have excused from the police saying we don’t have a facility for juveniles.”

“The police should have alternatives as in some states we have offices for special unit services, or they can use any room they have as a construction room to put them in.”

“If they feel this juvenile number and they don’t have space to detain them in, they have to look for another alternative on how to handle the punishment of the children.

On July 13^th, Aweil High Court sentenced dozens of teenagers to different prison terms and a fine of 30,000 South Sudanese pounds for each offender.

The group including juveniles and adults fought another group at a hotel where they were having an Independence Day party.

According to the police investigation, the brawl later escalated to a hospital where nurses and security officers were beaten up by the unruly youth.

For his part, Police Spokesperson Captain Guot Akol said the 21 males and 42 females who are understood to be below the age of 18 years, have been put in the same cells with adults due to a lack of juvenile reformatory facilities.

Captain Akol told Eye Radio that they had no choice but to let the minors serve their sentences at Aweil Main Prison.

“Regarding the reformatory center, there is no reformatory in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. It’s only Aweil’s main prison and the teenagers were taken to Aweil’s main prison to serve the sentence.”