Save the Children: More than 10 million children are in war zones in Sudan

In a report published today on Wednesday, Save the Children, an organization based in the United Kingdom, said that half of Sudan's children are currently or have been within five kilometers of the front line of fighting, which puts them at risk of "gunfire, missiles, airstrikes and other violence”.

The organization has worked with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) to prepare the report, which shows a 60 percent increase in the number of children affected by violence since the first month of the civil war in Sudan.

Millions of Sudanese children have been affected by the war
Sudan's political conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the head of the Rapid Support Force (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into open war in April 2023.

The new joint analysis shows that, since fighting broke out in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on April 15, 2023, more than 10 million children have been exposed to fighting, bombings, rockets and missiles, as well as direct attacks on citizens

The report said that most incidents of violence have occurred in densely populated areas, including cities and areas with more than 100,000 people, increasing the risk of frequent violence against children.

Dr. Arif Noor, head of the group in Sudan said: "These results show how many Sudanese children came close to death and injury in the last year of war."

Noor said: "Children in Sudan have suffered on an unimaginable scale. They have seen murders, streets full of bullets, corpses and houses hit by shells while living in real fear that they themselves may be killed, injured, recruited as combatants or sexually abused."

The United Nations says about 12,000 civilians were killed in Sudan by the end of 2023, although the actual death toll is believed to be much higher.