On Saturday morning a local boy’s football team was playing at a UNICEF Child-Friendly Space in Khartoum State when a shell hit the football field. Two boys were killed; almost the entire team was injured. I met these children, both in hospital, and at UNICEF’s Child Friendly Space. They are distraught.
These were the words of UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder, while speaking at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sudan’s humanitarian crisis for children. By numbers, it is the biggest in the world. But it is also a crisis of neglect. “So many of the countless atrocities upon children in Sudan have gone unreported, often as a result of very limited access,” Elder added.
“Yesterday I spoke to a senior medical worker who gave an insight into the magnitude of sexual violence during this war. She explained she had direct contact with hundreds of women and girls, some as young as 8, who have been raped. Many were held captive for weeks on end. She also spoke of the distressing number of babies, born after rape, who are being abandoned.”
According to UNICEF, thousands of children have been killed or injured in Sudan’s war. Sexual violence and recruitment are increasing. And the situation is even worse where an ongoing humanitarian presence remains denied.
“Five million children have been forced to flee their homes – a staggering average of 10,000 girls and boys displaced every single day – making Sudan the world’s largest child displacement crisis. Many of those have had to do so multiple times.
For more than a year, UNICEF said it has been saying Sudan’s children can’t wait. “Well, now they are dying,” Elder added.
The famine in Zamzam camp is the first determination of famine by the Famine Review Committee in more than seven years and only the third time a famine determination has been made since the monitoring system was created 20 years ago.
“We must be very clear: Without safe and unimpeded access, and the removal of hinderances – particularly cross-border and crossline – this month’s determination of famine in one part of Sudan risks spreading and leading to a catastrophic loss of children’s lives,” Elder said.
Beyond Zamzam, an additional 13 areas in Sudan are on the brink of famine, according to UNICEF. These areas represent home to 143,000 children already suffering the most lethal type of malnutrition. While experts do not give projections for mortality, Elder said the current situation necessitates that governments with influence, and donors, acknowledge that without action tens of thousands of Sudanese children may die over the coming months.
“And that is by no means a worst-case scenario. Any disease outbreak will see mortality skyrocket. Disease is our great fear. If there is a measles outbreak, or diarrhoea or respiratory infections – remembering that in the current living conditions, and with heavy rains and flooding, these diseases spread like wildfire- the terrifying outlook for children in Sudan dramatically worsens,” Elder added.
He described the top priorities for children and families in the region as unimpeded and safe humanitarian access using all routes, across lines of conflict (particularly Darfur, Khartoum, and Kordofan) and through Sudan’s borders; the respect of international humanitarian and human rights law; a massive scale up in donor funding so as to prevent the collapse of essential systems by paying frontline workers, providing lifesaving supplies, and maintaining critical infrastructure. He also called for an immediate ceasefire.
Elder noted that UNICEF and partners have reached five million children and families with safe drinking water, more than three million people with critical health supplies, another three million with malnutrition screening. The international agency said it continues to move lifesaving nutrition supplies through crossline and cross-border operations sufficient to treat 215,000 severely malnourished children.
“The killing of the children playing football. The captain and team’s best player was also one of its youngest. The shrapnel from the shell killed him. When I asked his teammates when they hoped to play again, their response was uniform: “never”. By turning a blind eye to Sudan, and by ignoring immense suffering, the warring parties and the international community continue a dangerous precedent for global apathy towards children,” Elder concluded.