Sudan's War Has Left Eight Million Children Out of School, UN Says

At least eight million school-age children in Sudan are out of the classroom because of the civil war that began more than three years ago, the United Nations said Friday, warning that the country is losing a second generation to conflict.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed delivered the assessment at an informal Security Council session on protecting education in Sudan, held as the war reached its 1,210th day. She said the loss of schooling is among the most significant costs of the fighting, and that displaced children, particularly those who have fled the country, are affected most severely, Al Jazeera reported.

The situation is most acute in Darfur. Nearly three-quarters of schools there have been damaged, destroyed or rendered unusable since fighting erupted in April 2023, and five of every six children in the region are out of school, according to TRT World. Mohammed said parents keep children home because they no longer regard classrooms as safe.

The UN has documented more than 67 attacks on schools since 2024 and more than 154 cases of schools being used for military purposes, figures Mohammed said almost certainly understate the true toll. More than half of Sudan's teachers have gone unpaid, though many continue to work.

The UN and its partners have returned more than a million children to some form of learning this year, an effort Mohammed described as far short of what the scale of the crisis requires.

Roughly 33 million people, more than half of Sudan's population, now depend on humanitarian assistance, and about 15 million have been displaced, according to UNICEF figures cited by Al Jazeera. Mohammed said famine has taken hold, with 4 million women and children expected to face acute malnutrition this year.

The war pits the Sudanese army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, in a conflict that began over disagreements about integrating the RSF into the national military. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who visited Sudan earlier this year, has described accounts of mass killings and sexual violence and called the situation a human rights catastrophe.