Half of all Sudanese children not in education due to civil war, says aid group

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Around half of all school-age children in Sudan, or more than eight million, are no longer in education because of the country’s civil war, in one of the world’s worst education crises, Save The Children said in a report on Thursday.

“Right now the international community is failing the children of Sudan,” Inger Ashing, the CEO of Save the Children International, one of the largest charities operating in the country, told reporters in a video-link briefing from Stockholm.

The report said more than eight million Sudanese children had missed about 500 days of education since the civil war began in April 2023.

“That is more than any child missed during the COVID pandemic,” Ashing said, adding that many schools had closed or been damaged during the conflict, while others were being used as shelters for displaced families.

In recent days, drone strikes have intensified in and around the city of al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state in central Sudan, causing significant civilian deaths in at least two cases, residents say.

Aid groups have called for urgent assistance to provide aid to the Darfur city of al-Fashir, taken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October, as well as to Kadugli, another besieged city in Sudan’s south. Both cities are facing famine.

More than 100,000 people are estimated to have fled al-Fashir since the RSF took control there after an 18-month siege.

Only 3% of schools are open in North Darfur, where conflict is ongoing, with areas in West Kordofan, South Darfur and West Darfur also gravely impacted, Save The Children’s report said.

Some teachers have left their jobs after not being paid for months, it added.

“Without immediate funding to pay and train teachers, restore learning spaces, and provide essential learning supplies, the education system risks total breakdown,” Save the Children said.

Education is a lifeline to protect children from exploitation and recruitment into armed groups, Ashing said following her visit this month to schools in Port Sudan, River Nile and Khartoum.

(Reporting by Olivia Le PoidevinEditing by Gareth Jones)