More than eleven months into the armed conflict in Sudan, 24 million children are at risk of a “generational catastrophe”, and their rights to life, survival, protection, education, health, and development have all been gravely violated, a UN committee has said. To mark nearly a year of brutality against Sudanese children, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued a statement on Monday, urging Sudan to immediately put an end to these grave violations and stop recruiting children into its armed forces.
April 15 will mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan, which was sparked by a power struggle between two rival generals. Aid agencies say the war is having catastrophic consequences for a population of nearly 49 million people - more than half of whom are in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured, millions have been forcibly uprooted from their homes, and of the 18 million people suffering from acute hunger, 5 million are on the brink of famine.
“Since the conflict began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Committee on the Rights of the Child has observed repeated attacks on civilians and civilian objects, widespread killings, including ethnically motivated, and the death of thousands of civilians, many of them are children,” the Committee said.
It noted that there were worrying reports of rape of civilians, including children, denial of humanitarian access affecting children’s access to basic necessities, and other violations of international law, including violations of children’s economic and social rights. These violations resulted in 24 million children in Sudan being at risk of “generational catastrophe”.
Among Sudan’s children, 14 million are in dire need of humanitarian support, 19 million are out of school, and 4 million are displaced, making Sudan now the largest child displacement crisis in the world.
"There has been a sharp increase in the number of children killed or victimized by sexual violence as a weapon of war compared to a year ago. Children are at higher risk given the widespread armed recruitment of children, particularly in Darfur and other areas, including eastern Sudan," the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said.
Many schools across the country have been destroyed and at least 170 campuses have been turned into emergency shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs), jeopardizing children's right to education for years to come and putting them at risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the brutal war in Sudan is pushing the country towards famine and catastrophic loss of life, especially among children. Conditions are dire, with acute shortages of food and clean drinking water.
UNICEF predicts that nearly 3.7 million children in Sudan will be acutely malnourished this year, including 730,000 with severe acute malnutrition requiring life-saving treatment. The UN agency has warned that without improved access and additional support, including increased international funding, tens of thousands of children are likely to die.
UNICEF has appealed to the warring parties to allow rapid, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access both across conflict lines within Sudan and across borders with Sudan's neighbors.
Compounding the situation, two-thirds of Sudanese lack access to health services after 70-80 percent of hospitals ceased operations due to severe shortages of medical supplies, including life-saving medicines, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO says escalating fighting is preventing desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of people across the country.
The UN Committee said it was deeply concerned by these clear violations of children’s rights to life, survival, education and development under international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
It urged Sudan to immediately take all urgent and necessary measures to end these severe violations and to fulfill its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The CRC also reminded Sudan of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in light of reports that both parties to the conflict have recruited hundreds of children in Darfur and eastern Sudan.
It called upon Sudan to immediately stop recruiting children and to spare them from the impact of the military operations of the two parties.
The Committee further urges Sudan to cooperate with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, established by the Human Rights Council in October 2023, to put an end to impunity for crimes committed against children and other civilians, to allow access to humanitarian aid and to move forward in the negotiation process between the warring parties to restore peace and security.
“Some of these violations would amount to war crimes. There must be prompt, thorough, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and those responsible must be brought to justice,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned. The UN Committee echoed these remarks.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors State parties' compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols. The Committee is composed of independent human rights experts from around the world. There are currently 196 State Parties to the Convention.
Fighting broke out last April between forces loyal to Sudan's army chief, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The two generals were once allies in Sudan's transitional government following a coup in 2021, but have become rivals for power. The conflict erupted amid a stalled transition to elections and a civilian-led government.
The ensuing power struggle has resulted in more than 14,000 deaths and 28,000 injuries, a massive displacement crisis, and large-scale atrocities, particularly against non-Arab communities in the country's Darfur region. Hunger has also reached catastrophic levels, and the UN has received reports of children dying from malnutrition. There are ongoing outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue fever, and malaria in the country.
More than eleven months after the war between the SAF and the RSF began in the capital, Khartoum, more than 8.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge inside and outside Sudan. At least 6.6 million of those displaced are within Sudan, while more than 1.9 million others have sought refuge in other countries. At least 1.7 million of these have fled across borders into neighboring South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt and the Central African Republic.
In total, some 11.5 million people are now displaced by conflict in Sudan, including more than 9 million within the country, making Sudan the largest internal displacement crisis in the world, and making Sudan one of the world’s two largest displacement crises – besides the Syrian war.
The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Sudan hardly receives the international political and media attention it deserves.
Further information
Full text: Sudan conflict: 24 million children exposed to a year of brutality and rights violations, UN committee says, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), statement, released March 18, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/sudan-conflict-24-million-children-exposed-year-brutality-and-rights