An estimated 10 million people, half of them children, have fled their homes as a result of the conflict in Sudan. “We only want peace”: the voice of Sudanese children who survived the war Humanitarian Aid
Naed was only 16 years old when her village was attacked by armed men. The militants indiscriminately shot local residents, and her grandfather and uncle were among the dead. Girls and young women were raped or kidnapped.
“Naed managed to escape, but what she had to endure was terrible,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said Tuesday as she described her story.
Sudan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis after conflict broke out in 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Action Force, which now, after more than 500 days of siege, control the destroyed capital of North Darfur, El Fasher.
Catherine Russell, who recently visited Sudan, called for urgent action to protect children and civilians in general. An estimated 10 million people have been displaced by the conflict, half of them children.
“Ongoing Violence”
During a visit to the east of the country, Russell met women and adolescents receiving psychosocial support and skills training at a UNICEF-supported center. Many are helped here, but such services are extremely limited in the states of Darfur and Kordofan due to extreme security instability.
“Children in Sudan live in conditions of ongoing violence, hunger and fear,” Russell said. “Women and girls bear the brunt of the crisis, including horrific levels of sexual violence.”
Speaking to reporters via video link from Sudan on Tuesday, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative Fabrizia Falcione described her meetings with those who managed to escape from El Fasher. Among them was a 17-year-old girl with a 18-month-old child born as a result of rape.
None of the women she spoke to had received any prenatal care consultations.
“They told me they preferred not to go to the hospital so as not to risk their lives along the way,” she said Falcione.
“We need proper toilets and bread”
When Falcione asked the displaced women what they needed most, they answered: proper toilets and bread. The opportunity to earn a living was third on the list of priorities.
“There are no toilets near their tents. There’s no light in the camp at night either,” Falcione said. “And these are pregnant women without men accompanying them.”
The fighting in and around El Fasher forced more than 106 thousand people to leave their homes. Temporary reception centers are overcrowded and entire areas have turned into huge informal settlements.
UNFPA provides maternal assistance and psychosocial services for survivors of gender-based violence, and UNICEF works to identify and register unaccompanied children and restore access to safe water.
Russell said that wherever she goes came during her visit to Sudan, the children told her the same thing: “We only want peace.” “The international community must do more to fulfill this wish,” she concluded.