Sudan's conflict is 'a war on children', says landmark report

A new report from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights has concluded that children “are being deliberately targeted” in Sudan’s war. 

The investigation found that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its enemy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have “committed widespread atrocities against children, including killings, sexual violence, forced recruitment, and the destruction of essential infrastructure such as hospitals and schools”.

Citing reporting from Middle East Eye, the report calls out the involvement of external actors in the war, primarily the United Arab Emirates.

“There is substantial evidence, including from RSF informants, confirming that the UAE is the primary supplier of heavy weaponry, armoured vehicles, munitions, and drones, as well as financing and political cover to the RSF and allied militia,” the report says. 

“In just the first year of the conflict, more than 10 million children were exposed to violence across Sudan.”

Children as young as one have been subjected to sexual violence.

In his introduction, Mukesh Kapila, former UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, writes that the atrocities committed include “enslavement and sexual violence targeting children in its most depraved forms as well as their forced conscription as soldiers”.

The Raoul Wallenberg Centre heard “alarming reports of systematic sexual violence, including rape, enslavement, starvation, and the abduction of children from their families”.

'Children are dying from hunger, disease, and direct violence. They are being cut off from the very services that could save their lives.'

- Sheldon Yett, Unicef

Unicef, the UN children’s agency, has estimated that over 12 million Sudanese civilians are at risk of gender-based violence.

“In general,” the investigation notes, “sexual violence is vastly underreported, especially in cases of children, due to social stigma, risk of retaliation or reprisals, and the decimation of healthcare, reporting, and communication systems.”

Entitled, “A War on Children, a World Complicit”, the report refers to the Rome Statute, the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the future Crimes Against Humanity treaty as the main international legal instruments being considered to bring about change in Sudan. 

“Based on substantial evidence, the UAE is in standing breach of the Genocide Convention and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for complicity in genocide and sponsoring or supporting the RSF throughout the conflict,” the report says.

The investigation was reviewed and endorsed by legal experts including Luis Moreno Ocampo, the founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

'Unprecedented levels'

Sudan has an estimated population of 50 million people, 42 percent of whom are under 14 years old. The war has been raging since April 2023, and because of it, 16 million Sudanese children now urgently need humanitarian assistance.

Around 17 million children are out of school, and 90 percent lack access to formal education, according to Save the Children. Nearly 40 years of child immunisation progress has been reversed, with cholera rife and children now at risk of widescale, preventable diseases. 

Nearly four million children under the age of five in Sudan are suffering from acute malnutrition. The entire population of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur that has been under an RSF siege for over 500 days, are living in famine conditions.

Displacement has hit children hardest, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre says. Of the more than 12 million displaced people, 53 percent are children, making Sudan’s child displacement crisis the largest in the world.

In April 2025, the UN verified a “dramatic increase in grave violations against children… especially in the Darfur region, with children being killed and maimed at unprecedented levels”.

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Despite the scale of this crisis, funding gaps are enormous. The Raoul Wallenberg Centre says: “Life-saving assistance is needed for 15 million children, yet Unicef is facing a deficit of $1 billion for this year’s operations in Sudan.”

“Children are dying from hunger, disease and direct violence. They are being cut off from the very services that could save their lives. This is not hypothetical. It is a looming catastrophe,” Sheldon Yett, Unicef’s Sudan representative, said.

“We are on the verge of irreversible damage to an entire generation of children not because we lack the knowledge or the tools to save them, but because we are collectively failing to act with the urgency, and at the scale this crisis demands.”

The report also includes an index of companies linked to the war or warring parties.

These include corporate entities owned by members of the UAE’s ruling family, a French aerospace company, a Colombian mercenary contractor, a Turkish arms manufacturer, an Australian mining company and more than one US conglomerate. 

“Despite the staggering scale of the emergency, the international response remains gravely inadequate,” the Raoul Wallenberg Centre says, “marked by an inexcusable shortfall in humanitarian funding, a shameful void in credible conflict-resolution initiatives, and a neglect of justice and accountability efforts.”