2.7. Children

2.7.1. General Overview

Sudan ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990,550 the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography in 2004,551 and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2005.552 It also ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 2005.553 The Sudanese Child Act of 2010 provides a national legal framework for the rights of children.554

By the end of 2025, UNICEF reported that over 15 million children in Sudan were in need of humanitarian assistance and 5.6 million children were displaced.555 Children faced increased protection risks, including child recruitment, exploitation and gender-based violence (GBV), and family separation. Over ten million children remained out of a safe learning environment.556 In a March 2026 Child Protection brief on Sudan, UNHCR reported that ‘over 58 000 unaccompanied and separated children have been recorded across the countries hosting Sudanese refugees’, noting that the actual scale was likely higher. According to the same source, ‘family separation remains a defining feature of the crisis’.557 In February 2026, the UN reported that ‘in parts of North Darfur more than half of all children are acutely malnourished’.558 In April 2026, UNICEF reported that ‘famine has been confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli’, and 4.2 million children were expected to suffer from malnutrition across the country in 2026.559

Killings of children have been recorded in 2025.560 In April 2026, UNICEF reported that ‘at least 245 children were reported killed or injured’ over the first three months of 2026, a ‘sharp increase’ from the same period in 2025, with most cases in Darfur and Kordofan states. Over 4 300 children were killed or maimed in Sudan since the onset of the conflict, and these numbers do not reflect the full scale of the situation due to underreporting.561 Children are also victim of conflict-related sexual violence.562 Additional information can be found under section 2.6.2. (a) Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).