Aid officials say more children are arriving each day at a refugee camp after fleeing the Sudanese city of el-Fasher in recent weeks, separated from their families during the chaos.
The U.N. reported that more than 100,000 people escaped el-Fasher in late October when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces retook the city from Sudan’s military.
UNICEF recorded 354 unaccompanied children at a refugee camp in Tawila, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from el-Fasher, between Oct. 26 and Nov. 22. Many were separated when their parents vanished, were detained, or killed on the way.
According to UNICEF, 84 children have been reunited with family members over the past month, mostly in Tawila where aid groups are supporting displaced families affected by the RSF capture of North Darfur’s capital.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said more than 400 children have arrived in Tawila without parents. Some were brought by strangers, neighbors, or distant relatives who refused to leave them behind in the desert or in el-Fasher, said NRC advocacy manager Mathilde Vu.
“Many children arrived visibly starving, very thin, dehydrated,” she said, explaining that some show signs of trauma; silent, restless, constantly crying, or suffering nightmares.
The most recent mass displacement started when the RSF left hundreds dead in el-Fasher, once the last major army stronghold. The conflict between the RSF and Sudan’s military began in 2023 after a rift between the two forces that were supposed to guide the country to democracy after the 2019 uprising.
The World Health Organization says the war has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, though aid agencies fear the real death toll is far higher.
Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, described the children arriving as “bewildered, malnourished and dehydrated.”
“The level of violence these children witnessed is staggering. Their mothers disappear, and in many cases family members are shot. It’s beyond anything I’ve heard,” Yett said.
While children are receiving psychological support, some still sleep on bare ground and rarely get more than one meal daily, Vu said.
“People are hungry and thirsty. They need education, health care, and mental support, we must help them now instead of waiting for peace,” she said.The RSF’s fighters are largely drawn from the Janjaweed militia, accused of leading a genocidal campaign in Darfur in the 2000s that killed around 300,000 people.
