War in Sudan is putting the future of its 24 million youngest citizens at risk, the Representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the country has warned.
"Sudan is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. It's a living nightmare for children," Mandeep O'Brien said this week in an interview with UN News.
Nearly 10 months have passed since clashes erupted between the Sudanese Army and a rival group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), leaving14 million children in desperate need of lifesaving assistance.
Child displacement crisis
Ms. O'Brien said the fighting has sparked the world's largest child displacement crisis. More than 3.5 million boys and girls have fled their homes for safer locations, with some uprooted several times.
The bad news continues as more than 7.4 million young Sudanese do not have access to safe drinking water, putting them at risk of waterborne diseases, and nearly two million are in urgent need of lifesaving vaccines.
Sudan also has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. More than three million under-fives suffer from acute malnutrition, and 700,000 could die from its severest form unless they receive medical treatment.
Classrooms in the crosshairs
Furthermore, 19 million school-age children are not in the classroom, putting Sudan at risk of becoming one of the worst learning crises in the world.
"Imagine the future of this country if children are not being able to learn," Ms. O'Brien remarked. "We estimate that if this continues, Sudan would be facing a $26 billion lifetime earning loss."
Education is a powerful tool for building peace "because when children are in classrooms, they feel safe, protected, and they can peacefully co-exist," she said.
"These are values that we shouldn't take for granted. These are values that have to be lived and practiced by children."
Open schools, pay teachers
UNICEF has been pushing for Sudanese federal and state authorities to re-open schools, but Ms. O'Brien pointed to another barrier to education.
"For that to happen, teachers need to be paid," she said. "Sadly, since the onset of this war, teachers and other frontline workers have not been paid their salaries, so this has to happen."
In the interim, UNICEF and partners have been exploring practical solutions and ways to support the safe re-opening of schools where conditions allow, while also working to reach more young learners.
