“Three hundred days ago, a wave of atrocities were unleashed upon the children of Sudan.” - James Elders, UNICEF Spokesperson
In April 2023, the power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces flared into armed conflict. (UN HRC, 2024). Originally stemming from the restructuring of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), clashes intensified when recent attempts were made to merge RSF with the Sudanese Armed Forces in order to enforce Governmental power. RSF leader, General Hamdan, resisted integration efforts in order to maintain the RSF’s individual power. This fallout led to a series of RSF attacks on Khartoum on April 15th with significant civilian casualties.
Over the following months, the conflict spread, claiming thousands of lives and triggering a humanitarian crisis. Despite diplomatic efforts, both factions remain entrenched, prolonging the violence and its impact on Sudan.
Within 10 months of conflict, Sudan now has the largest child displacement crisis in the world, with 4 million children fleeing the escalation of violence.
The Displacement of Children in Sudan
“Child Displacement” in reference to warzones represents the children that are forced to leave their homes in order to avoid conflict or under the threat of death (UN, 2017). These children are often unaccompanied, with the displacement also referring to a separation from parental figures and immediate family.
Within Sudan, an estimated 4 million children have been displaced (UNICEF, 2024). As quoted by UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder on the 300th day of the Sudan conflict, “That’s 13,000 children every single day for 300 days. Safety, gone. Worldly possessions, gone. Friends and family members separated or lost. Hope, fading.”
In order to properly conceptualise the humanitarian crisis that unfolds with child displacement, it is necessary to understand how displacement affects the children of Sudan.
The uncertainty and chaos that accompanies displacement has placed the children of Sudan into extreme danger. Prevention of proper humanitarian aid and inaccessible resources have been the basis of UNICEF predictions that 3.5 million children in Sudan will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2024. 700,000 of these children would require intense healthcare treatment. Unless aid access improves, UNICEF estimated that they would not be able to reach more than half of these children. ACAPS (1)
has rated the constraints on humanitarian access as extreme, due to high levels of violence and the Sudanese Government restriction of aid organisations.
One example is the Zamzam Displacement Camp, located in North Darfur. Since the RSF attack on April 15th, 300,000 people have been displaced to Zamzam, and find themselves completely isolated from essential humanitarian aid and care that used to reach the camp. A lack of aid accessibility, financial resources, and staff has shattered the fragile support system that once maintained Zamzam. A survey from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) found that the camp had approximately 13 child deaths per day due to the collapsing system.
The Loss of a Future for the Children of Sudan
Alongside crumbling healthcare and food resources, the past year has seen a 500% increase in verified cases of killings, sexual violence, and militia recruitment of children (UNICEF, 2024). Displaced children are at a higher risk of violence due to a lack of support and safety. “These numbers,” Elder said, “are just the tip of the iceberg.”
Reports from eyewitnesses and humanitarian organisations within Sudan (ACJPS) state an increase in child soldiers among the RSF ranks. “Their weapons were longer than them,” was reported from one such eyewitness as she encountered child soldiers at an RSF checkpoint while fleeing from north Sudan after the start of war. Displaced children are at a significant risk of recruitment into militia ranks, where they act as bodyguards or engage in violence. Recruitment into militia ranks significantly impacts both the physical wellbeing and psychological wellbeing of Sudanese children, as they are exposed to severe violence and indoctrination. Another man who claimed to witness child soldiers at a RSF checkpoint stated, “I have never seen children with such bloodlust in my life.”
Furthermore, the current civil war has left a permanent impact on the future of Sudanese children. An estimated 19 million children are without education within Sudan as many schools are shuttered due to the conflict. Of the 12 million children previously in school, approximately 7 out of 10 were unable to form a sentence. The educational crisis stains the future prospects of children in Sudan, and adds to the despair which has grown from the years of conflict that have ravaged the country prior to the current war. As said by James Elder, “This is also a war destroying opportunity…the true cost of war isn’t just measured in casualties but also in the loss of intellectual capital.”
The combined economic and education crisis in Sudan which has been amplified through the current conflict perpetuates a “death of hope” even for the children who will live through the war.
Written by Ariel Bussani
Sources:
Footnotes:
(1) ACAPS is a non-biased organisation focused on processing data on world crises from human rights organisations and aid workers to provide updated statistics on world events.
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