04/18/2024
One year on: the forgotten war in Sudan
Soaring hunger and the world’s largest child displacement crisis: 17 April marks one year since the outbreak of the war in Sudan, but the conflict has long since disappeared from the public eye. Meanwhile, the situation of children, young people and families is desperate.
Close to four million children are displaced within the country. “Most families have lost everything: their homes, their income, their hope,” says Abdelrahman Mubarak, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages in Sudan. “Their communities have been destroyed, the health and education systems have collapsed. They lack food, water, medicine, clothing and shelter.”
Hundreds of thousands of children in Sudan are suffering from severe malnutrition. 18 million people across the country are acutely food insecure and 5 million are now facing starvation.
“People are living in refugee camps and schools,” continues Mr. Mubarak. The latter have been closed since the outbreak of the war, resulting in 19 million children missing out on their education. “This is a nightmare for the families,“ Mr. Mubarak says. “When children are cut off from learning, entire families are deprived of their hope for a better future.”
Refugees are surviving with the support of international aid organizations. However, according to the United Nations World Food Programme, many of the NGOs active in Sudan are underfunded and only a fraction of the required aid is reaching them.
Mr. Mubarak hopes that, despite the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the international public will once again turn its attention to Sudan: “The warring parties are committing atrocities against the civilian population, including women and children. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic. This war can only end if the international community notices it again and pressures the parties to the conflict.”
SOS Children’s Villages’ facilities are also directly affected by the war. Shortly after its outbreak, SOS Children's Village Khartoum was forcibly taken over by armed troops and the children were evacuated. At the beginning of 2024, they had to be relocated again because the situation in the areas previously considered safe also deteriorated. “In hindsight, I have to say that the decision on the relocation was right. The children are doing well. They are psychologically stable,” says Mr. Mubarak.
