RUMBEK, Sudan -- More than 2,500 former child soldiers have been airlifted from volatile areas of southern Sudan to rehabilitation centers in a unique operation by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), AFP quoted the agency as saying Tuesday. The boys, who have been demobilized from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the southwestern Bahr el-Ghazal region, had last week gathered near airstrips to board transport planes operated by the UN World Food Program, an AFP journalist saw.