Sudan: Children Under Fire as Parts of Country Record Most Violent Month Since February

PORT SUDAN, (September 24, 2024) – The conflict in Sudan has seen a major increase in intensity in recent weeks, with violence hitting a seven-month high in the country, with children on the frontline, said Save the Children.

Violent incidents include airstrikes, artillery shelling, use of explosives and remote violence in multiple regions, with the majority of recent incidents reported in the state of Khartoum and North Darfur, where more than 1.6 million people have been displaced, including over 850,000 children since the war started 17 months ago.

In Khartoum, at least 110 distinct artillery shelling incidents were recorded in August alone, the highest number of shelling recorded in the capital since January this year.

Save the Children analyzed instances of violence recorded by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) between January 6 and September 13^[1] and found over 422 incidents of political violence reported in the past four weeks across the country - a 33% increase from incidents reported in the four weeks prior, and the most violence recorded in a single four-week period in the past seven months.

While this period was the most violent in the last seven months of the war in Sudan, the scale of the conflict has remained high throughout the year, with at least 300 violent incidents reported every month. Over two-thirds of violent events in the last four weeks were recorded in Khartoum and North Darfur.^[2]

Children and the facilities they rely on have been impacted by the violence with devastating outcomes. On August 8, an artillery shelling in the Wd Al Bhakit area of Khartoum injured two children, with a childcare center hit two days later in a neighboring area. On August 27, an unspecified number of children were abducted for ransom from Um Marrahi Masaid, Al Jazirah state. Additional incidents of violence appear in the data showing the destruction of schools, children’s hospitals and malnutrition treatment centers.

Across North Darfur, ongoing fighting in the city of El Fasher is putting over 2.8 million civilians - including over 750,000 children - in and around the city in grave danger.

In Zamzam displacement camp, 15 km south of El Fasher and home to some 260,000 children, rates of malnutrition are spiraling out of control. At least 34% of the children are currently malnourished, including 10% who are severely malnourished.

This analysis comes as Sudan's international non-governmental organization (INGO) forum – a group of INGOs working in Sudan including Save the Children — issues a statement to UN General Assembly (UNGA) calling on the international community to increase pressure on conflict parties to facilitate immediate humanitarian access through all possible cross border and cross-line routes; establish mechanisms to protect civilians and essential infrastructure from indiscriminate attacks; and increase funding and initiatives to support communities' responding at scale to this crisis.

Over 10 million people have fled their homes since the conflict broke out in April 2023, making Sudan the world's largest internal displacement crisis, affecting more than 5 million children and over 2 million people who have crossed into neighboring countries. More than 20,171 people including children have been killed since the start of the conflict.

With more than 25.6 million people across the country in need of aid, the increase in fighting, coupled with widespread flooding and disease outbreaks, has escalated food scarcity. In Khartoum, for instance, over 80% of people forced from their homes and living in shelters urgently need assistance, according to a recent rapid assessment conducted by the UN’s World Food Programme.

Mohamed Abdiladif, Interim Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, said:
"We are horrified that regions which used to be the breadbasket of the country, such as Darfur and Khartoum, have been turned into battlefields, leaving millions of people now just one step away from famine.

"With famine now confirmed in North Darfur's Zamzam camp and dire conditions reported across the country, we need urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to save lives. The relentless conflict, displacement, and impeded aid delivery have driven the situation to catastrophic proportions, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands across 13 states in Sudan. To curb further escalation and meet the pressing needs of those in conflict zones, it is essential that all parties lift restrictions and facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access."

In Khartoum, Save the Children is supporting two health facilities with medicines and healthcare workers. We are also providing cash assistance to families so that they can buy food for their children. The aid agency is also implementing child protection, health and nutrition, and multi-purpose cash assistance projects in North Darfur both directly and through partners.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across Sudan, providing health, nutrition, education, child protection, food security, and livelihoods support. Save the Children is also supporting refugees from Sudan in Egypt and South Sudan.

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Notes:
1.  Save the Children analyzed data in 4-week periods, working backwards to the first full week of data since the start of 2024 from the last weekly data refresh on ACLED on Friday, September 13 (at the time Save the Children accessed the database on September 19). The number of incidents of political violence in Sudan in the four weeks to September 13 was higher than in any period since the four weeks starting on February 3, i.e. in around 7 months.

4-week period Number of political violence incidents
August 17 - September 13 422
July 20 - August 16, 317
June 22 - July 19, 281
May 25 - June 21, 382
April 27 - May 24, 313
March 30 - April 26 396
March 2 - March 29, 317
February 3 - March 1, 441
January 6 - February 2 560

2.  Khartoum and North Darfur account for 287 (68%) of the 422 political violence events recorded from August 17 to September 13 and 2,043 (58%) of such events recorded since January 1. Many violent events in 2024 have also taken place in Al Jazirah state- 625 since January 1.