Despite repeated attempts at peace, some of the deadliest fighting of the civil war has erupted in the last few months.

The warring leaders are unflinchingly entrenched in their positions, and the kinds of abuses that shocked the world early in the conflict, including the use of child soldiers and deliberate attacks on civilians, are reoccurring with new ferocity.

“The details of the worsening violence against children are unspeakable,” the director of Unicef, Anthony Lake, said in a statement this week. “Survivors report that boys have been castrated and left to bleed to death. Girls as young as 8 have been gang raped and murdered. Children have been tied together before their attackers slit their throats. Others have been thrown into burning buildings.”

Even the spokesman for the military, the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army, acknowledged that the conflict was pointless.

“This is a senseless war,” said the spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer.

Chol Garkouth, 15, can barely remember how his family celebrated his country’s independence from Sudan four years ago. He does not know about the support the United States gave to South Sudan’s creation, the eight peace deals that have collapsed since his fledgling nation quickly spiraled into civil war, or even much about the politics fueling the fire.