Sudan’s "Lost Generation": Over 8 Million Children Out of School as War Rages

International aid agency Save the Children has issued a stark warning regarding the future of Sudan's youth, revealing that more than 8 million children—nearly half of the country's school-aged population—are currently out of the classroom due to the ongoing civil war.

In a comprehensive report released on Friday, January 23, 2026, the organization described the situation as one of the world's most severe education crises. Since the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023, Sudanese children have missed over 500 days of formal education.

International Failure and Domestic Despair

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, accused the international community of "failing the children of Sudan" during a press conference in Stockholm. "The number of school days lost by these children exceeds the losses seen by any child during the global COVID-19 pandemic," Ashing noted, following her recent visits to schools and displacement camps in Port Sudan, River Nile State, and Khartoum.

The report details a devastating landscape for education:

Destroyed Infrastructure: Thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed by airstrikes and shelling.

Schools as Shelters: Many surviving school buildings have been repurposed as emergency shelters for millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Darfort Crisis: In North Darfur, the situation is even more dire, with only 3% of schools currently operational.

Rising Tensions in IDP Camps

The crisis reached a boiling point in Port Sudan recently, where displaced families staged angry protests against local government orders to evacuate schools. Protesters blocked main roads and burned tires, arguing they had nowhere else to go if forced out of the educational facilities they now call home.

The intensification of airstrikes in the Kordofan region over the past week has led to the closure of even the few schools that were operating intermittently, further isolating children from any sense of normalcy or safety.