At least 435 children have died and 2,025 have been injured since the start of the conflict in Sudan in April, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) reported on Monday, warning of violations of children’s rights.
“The scale of the impact this conflict has had on the children of Sudan over the past 100 days is almost mind-boggling,” said UNICEF deputy executive director for supply and humanitarian operations Ted Chaiban, who is in Sudan this week.
According to Chaiban, “every day children die, are injured and kidnapped” and also “schools, hospitals and various vital infrastructures are damaged, destroyed or looted”.
The UN agency has received reports of at least 435 children killed and 2,025 injured in the past 100 days, an average of more than one per hour.
Since these are only the numbers communicated to UNICEF sources, it is likely that the real figure is much higher in a country where almost 14 million children need humanitarian aid, the source recalled.
Before the crisis, which began with a rebellion by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group against the regular Sudanese army, some 3.8 million IDPs were registered in Sudan, including 1.9 million children.
“Another 1.7 million children were forced to leave their homes and are now displaced within Sudan and along its borders. They are vulnerable to hunger, disease, violence and separation from their families. Reports of kidnapping, recruitment of children by armed groups, ethnic violence and gender-based violence against women and girls are also increasing with 4.2 million women and girls at risk of gender-based violence,” the UNICEF official said.
The fighting has further aggravated the fragile humanitarian situation in Sudan, which is already one of the countries in the region most affected by malnutrition.
The violence has driven the country to “record levels” of hunger, the World Food Program (WFP) warned on Sunday.
According to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of refugees is now estimated at 737,801 people who have fled the violence in Sudan to neighboring countries.
Source: TSF
