Read 2 minutes

More than 2.8 million children under the age of five face dire humanitarian conditions as armed conflict continues to ravage across Sudan, international organizations and local authorities have said.

The children, now being displaced across Sudan, “will miss out on early childhood essentials – including vaccinations, clean water, healthcare, nutritious food, and shelter from extreme heat and cold,” the international non-governmental organization Save the Children said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the report, over half of the 11 million displaced, or 5.8 million, are children under 18, with a large number of whom living in displacement camps, informal settlements, cramped schools, or other public buildings.

Meanwhile, local popular organizations in the central Gezira state, which is witnessing escalating attacks, warned that children are the main victims of the current wave of violence.

Al-Khatim Ali, spokesman for the SANAD Foundation, a charity organization, said that “more than 100 children under the age of 18 have been killed in recent armed attacks in the eastern Gezira region.”

“The actual number may be higher,” Ali told Xinhua, calling on the international community to take strict measures to protect children in Sudan.

“Sudanese children are suffering from a critical humanitarian reality due to the effects of war and the tragedy of displacement and refuge, combined by the systematic violations,” Abdul Qadir Abdullah Abu, secretary-general of the National Council for Child Welfare in Sudan, told Xinhua.

“Until now, more than 1.5 million children do not go to school, while there are thousands of children who have been directly injured due to the war, with many disabled, not to mention the psychological effects,” he said.

According to government estimates, about 8 million children have been affected by the war in Khartoum and Gezira states, as well as the Kordofan and Darfur regions in western Sudan.

Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Catherine Russell, said in a statement earlier this week that “the world cannot stand idly by while Sudan’s children face horrific atrocities.”

“We must act now to safeguard their future and uphold their right to safety and peace,” she noted.

Sudan has been ravaged by a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since mid-April 2023. According to a situation report issued by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project on October 14, the deadly conflict has resulted in more than 24,850 deaths.