UNITED NATIONS, March 18 (Reuters) - A South Sudanese warlord who abducted about 89 boys from their school has offered to let them return to finish exams as long as they are then given back to him to fight, United Nations global education envoy Gordon Brown said on Wednesday.
South Sudan warlord offers abducted boys sit exams -U.N. envoy
"The whole world should be protesting as we did over Chibok about any child that is abducted from their school and any child that has been kidnapped ... as is happening to so many children in South Sudan," Brown told reporters at the United Nations.
Brown was referring to the kidnap of more than 200 girls by Boko Haram militants from Chibok, Nigeria. Boko Haram, which is fighting to carve an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, attacked the girls' secondary school almost a year ago at exam time. The abduction led to a global campaign to find them.
In South Sudan, the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF said in February that gunmen kidnapped the boys in oil-rich Upper Nile State while they were sitting exams.
Brown, a former British prime minister, said they were aged between 12 and 15. Brown was starting a campaign for the world to guard schools from military use and attacks and give them the same protections as Red Cross hospitals.
"The latest information is that the terrorist group has offered to allow them to sit their exams as long as they can then take them back as child soldiers," Brown said. He did not give details on who had taken the boys.
