In a TikTok video, a boy around 12 years old walks through dusty streets carrying a Kalashnikov weapon and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic. Several dead bodies can be seen lying on the ground behind him. The sound of bullets echoes.
The video was published in early December, shortly after rebels from the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia captured the southern Sudanese town of Babanusa, apparently with the involvement of child soldiers. Investigative Research Network bellingcat Verified that some videos were filmed directly in Babanusa.
Many videos of child soldiers in Sudan are going viral on social media these days, especially on TikTok. According to Bellingcat reporter Sebastian VanderMeersch, most have been filmed by the children themselves using mobile phone cameras and have been viewed millions of times.
He came across these videos while researching war crimes in Sudan.
“I was able to find a whole network of accounts sharing content about child soldiers on TikTok,” he said.
“Child soldiers as influencers are a completely new phenomenon,” VanderMeersch said.
Sudan’s children are most affected by the war
The war in Sudan that began three years ago is one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters. Nearly 14 million people have been displaced, with more than four million seeking refuge in neighboring countries. According to the United Nations, about 34 million Sudanese are dependent on humanitarian aid, which is about 65% of the population.
According to Kamal Eldin Bashir of the aid organization Save the Children in Sudan, children are the most affected.
“They are suffering from displacement, separation from their families, lack of education and above all lack of health care, with malnutrition affecting a large number of children,” Bashir said.
The countless unaccompanied children living without parents in displacement camps are the most vulnerable. According to the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, about 42,000 such children have been registered.
“Most people lost their parents during the fighting or while fleeing,” Bashir said. “They are at risk of being recruited into the war,” he added.
According to Mohammed Othman, head of the UN fact-finding team on Sudan, the RSF maintains a particularly large number of child soldiers.
“They are deployed in various roles, for example, for blockade, but also for espionage,” Othman explained. He emphasizes that the use of children under the age of 15 is a war crime under the Rome Statute, on which the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is based.
“Lion cubs” suffer serious blow from Sudan’s civil war
These babies are called “lion cubs” or “lion cubs” online. The term has been used in previous wars in Sudan and the region. Thousands of children were recently deployed on the front lines in South Sudan and Uganda.
Bashir of Save the Children warned that these child soldiers become seriously traumatized and scarred for life.
“According to statistics, up to 50% of children in Sudan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder,” Bashir said. “These are really worrying numbers.”
The number of children recruited to actively participate in the war is even higher.
Trauma manifests itself through a number of symptoms, including nightmares and decreased school performance.
“But to treat all these children, we lack specialized health facilities equipped to deal with this problem,” Bashir said.
Serious consequences for Sudan’s future
According to Ugandan doctor Victor Ochen, if these children are not treated, it will ultimately have very negative consequences for society. He is the director of the organization Ayinet, Who specializes in treating former child soldiers.
It is one of the few such organizations on the continent. Ochen has recently trained psychologists in Sudan. He finds it worrying that child soldiers are now being glorified as war heroes.
“They could be used as propaganda tools by the warring parties,” he said.
Ochen grew up in Uganda during the civil war. His brother was forcibly recruited by Ugandan rebels into the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He knows from personal experience that these war experiences usually shape future generations.
In a regional study commissioned by the African Union, AYINET found that the entire region, including Sudan, experiences brutal civil wars in regular cycles.
The reason, according to Ochen: “Many had experiences when they were children and witnessed their parents being killed. And once they get ten to 15 years older and mature, they are ready to fight back.” This means that trauma persists across generations.
Investigative journalist VanderMeersch confronts TikTok with video. But the reaction from the stage was muted.
“The accounts were still available after 48 hours,” he said. All reported accounts were removed shortly after the publication of their article. However, the journalist said that new accounts emerged soon after.
This article is taken from German language.