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A woman stands in the Sudanese border town of Wadi Halfa in a classroom that has been converted into a refuge (symbolic image)
Photo: Ashraf Shazly / AFP
Less than half a year after the outbreak of the power struggle in Sudan, about 19 million children in the northeast African country are unable to go to school. This was announced by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the aid organization Save the Children. According to the report, at least 10,400 schools have recently been closed in conflict areas due to increasing violence and insecurity.
Even before the outbreak of the conflict in mid-April, almost seven million children were out of school. If the crisis continues, no child in Sudan will soon be able to attend school at all, the organizations warned.
The girls and boys are exposed to numerous dangers, including displacement, recruitment by armed groups and sexual violence. "Sudan is on the verge of experiencing the world's worst education crisis," said Mandeep O'Brien, Unicef's country representative in Sudan. The future of an entire generation is at risk, O'Brien said.
Around 2.5 million children displaced
According to Save the Children, the conflict in Sudan has become the largest internal displacement crisis in the world. About 4.4 million people in the country of around 40 million inhabitants have had to leave their home villages since mid-April, including around 2.5 million children.
Since 15 April, the army under de facto head of state Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan has been fighting in Sudan against the paramilitary militia RSF of former deputy ruler Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. The generals had seized power together in a coup d'état in 2019 and 2021 and later quarreled over power-sharing. Neither side has been able to gain the upper hand so far.
aeh/dpa