The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has begun to demobilise a large number of child soldiers in the volatile western Upper Nile region of the south, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. SPLM/A commanders had ordered the first batch of 94 children, during a ceremony in the village of Tam, to put down their weapons, return their uniforms, and go back to their families and schools, the agency said in a statement on Friday.