Since the onset of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, over 110 schools and hospitals have been hit, said in a communiqué Sheldon Yett, a UNICEF representative to Sudan.

The diplomat added that those strikes have killed and injured thousands of children, depriving them of their education.

This week, the Children’s Fund claimed the death of five children after a bombing of a school and a market in the city of El Obeid, in Kordofan state, which left 20 others wounded.

A few days earlier, another shelling was dropped on a UNICEF-supported children’s center in Al Hattana, Khartoum state, slaughtering two children and injuring at least eight others.

Yett recalled that schools have been closed for over a year due to the war, leaving over 17 million school-age children without access to safe education.

The few partially open centers are used as shelters for internally displaced persons.

In 2024, UNICEF recorded a five-fold upsurge in serious violations against children compared to two years earlier.

The agency stressed to the parties the need to end their attacks on civilian facilities and infrastructure and protect the child population in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

“Schools offer children in this war-torn country the opportunity to learn, play with their friends and help them cope with trauma,” the UNICEF representative noted.

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