UNICEF Calls for Better Protection for Sudanese Children

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) called on Sudan’s warring factions to better protect vulnerable young people.

In a report issued Friday, UNICEF noted that the conflict in Sudan had killed over 330 children and left 13 million more in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

The report showed that the ongoing clashes have displaced more than 2 million people nationwide, with lawlessness and ethnic violence intensifying across the Darfur region.

“Children are trapped in an unrelenting nightmare, bearing the heaviest burden of a violent crisis they had no hand in creating - caught in the crossfire, injured, abused, displaced, and subjected to disease and malnutrition,“ said Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF’s Representative in Sudan, said in the report.

According to the United Nations’ latest figures, there are nearly 21 million children in Sudan, which had a population of over 45 million before the conflict broke out.

The latest report came after the International Committee of the Red Cross rescued 297 children from an orphanage in Khartoum last week.