“The reality for children in Sudan is getting darker by the hour,” Eva Hinds, spokeswoman for the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), said last week, as the country’s civil war entered its fourth year.
The conflict broke out in April 2023 between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary force and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) following the collapse of a fragile transition to civilian rule following Sudan’s 2019 uprising.
Fighting has since spread across much of the country, devastating cities and displacing more than 13 million people, according to the World Health Organization. informed.
According to UNICEF, more than 4,300 children have been killed or maimed since the war began, with the highest numbers in Darfur and Kordofan states.
Ashan Abeywardene, emergency response manager for War Child, an organization that works to ensure a safe future for every child caught in conflict, said the conflict has a serious impact on minors.
“Going through three years of conflict has had a massive impact on these children and women. The children’s daily lives are shaped by news of death and destruction,” Abeywardena told DW.
Many deaths and injuries have been caused by indiscriminate drone strikes – a weapon that is increasingly being used by both sides in the conflict.
“Drones are killing and injuring girls and boys in their homes, in markets, on the streets, near schools and health facilities – all places that should never be targeted,” UNICEF’s Hinds said. told reporters.
“In the first three months of this year, nearly 700 civilians were killed in drone strikes,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief.
Both the RSF and SAF have used drones to attack civilian infrastructure to slow the advance of their opponents. The effect was that hospitals, roads and schools were destroyed, making the plight of the civilian population even worse.
Humanitarian crisis spreads in East Africa
The effects of the war are being felt across East Africa.
DW Kenya correspondent Andrew Wasike said the conflict no longer appears to be contained within Sudan.
Wasike said, “In East Africa, war is not just a distant conflict. It is both a humanitarian disaster and a regional security problem.” He said displacement, disrupted trade routes and political tensions are impacting neighboring countries.
He said, “The conversation about feeling is no longer just about Khartoum or Darfur. We are all affected.”
Despite the scale of suffering, Sudan has struggled to remain a global priority. The top UN official in the country, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Dennis Brown, said the crisis-hit country had been effectively abandoned. He described widespread atrocities documented by the United Nations, including systematic sexual violence, conquests that led to entire communities facing famine, and mass killings.
He pointed to a particularly deadly incident last year, when thousands of people were reportedly killed in a matter of days during fighting in the city of al-Fashar.
“My question is, what is the world waiting for?” he asked, calling for a global response seen in other major crises.
Now that call is being heeded in Berlin. Germany hosted an international conference last week to raise funds to help those affected by the war.
Ahead of the conference, German Foreign Minister Johann Waddefull said he hoped more than $1 billion (about €850 million) could be raised.
He later announced that €1.3 billion had been pledged, following on from $1 billion raised at a donor conference in London last year.
This article is excerpted from an episode of DW’s AfricaLink podcast.