UN warns Sudan’s civil war is erasing a generation’s future
With nearly three-quarters of Darfur’s schools unusable and half of teachers unpaid, the United Nations describes a humanitarian catastrophe that threatens to repeat the losses of earlier Sudanese conflicts.
The United Nations has issued a stark assessment of Sudan’s ongoing civil war, warning that the conflict is systematically depriving an entire generation of its future. Speaking at an informal session of the UN Security Council focused on safeguarding education, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed highlighted that more than 8 million school-age children remain out of the classroom as the war enters its 1,210th day.
Mohammed told the council that the destruction of educational infrastructure is accelerating, with nearly three-quarters of schools in Darfur damaged, destroyed, or rendered unusable since fighting erupted in April 2023. The data indicates that five in six children are now out of school, a situation driven by safety concerns that compel parents to keep children at home rather than risk sending them to potentially targeted classrooms.
Since 2024, the UN has documented over 67 attacks on schools and more than 154 instances where educational facilities were used for military purposes. Mohammed cautioned that these figures likely understate the true scale of the damage due to access restrictions and reporting challenges. Compounding the crisis, more than half of Sudan’s teachers have gone unpaid, although many continue to work despite the financial strain.
The humanitarian impact extends far beyond the education sector. Approximately 15 million people have been displaced since the conflict began between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Nearly 33 million people, including over half who are children, are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to UNICEF. The agency has noted that while more than one million children have been enrolled in some form of learning this year, this effort remains far short of the scale required.
The situation has drawn severe condemnation from other UN officials. Earlier this year, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk visited Sudan and described the conflict as a human rights catastrophe unfolding in real time, citing accounts of mass killings and gang rape. Mohammed warned that Sudan has already lost a generation to previous wars and is now losing another, with women and children bearing the disproportionate burden of a conflict in which they had no say.
