Sudan

Background

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This map does not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers.

Armed conflict continues in Darfur, where an estimated 1.8 million children have been affected by the conflict.  Many children have been exposed to brutal violence. Disease, malnutrition and disruptions in essential services like water and education are also leaving their mark.

A January 2005 peace agreement ended decades of civil war in Southern Sudan, creating a historic opportunity to remedy the desperate situation for children there.  It is hoped that women’s and children’s rights will be a priority as the political map is redrawn.    
 
Issues facing children in Sudan

• About one in ten Sudanese children dies before the age of five. Malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases kill more than 100,000 children annually.
• Conditions for women and children are dire in Southern Sudan. The region’s maternal mortality rate is estimated to be about three times as high as in the rest of the country.
• More than 20 million people lack access to sanitation; 17 million have no source of safe drinking water.
• Thousands of children who were once recruited as soldiers or were otherwise associated with armed groups now need assistance in reintegrating with society.
• More than 2 million people rely on food assistance. Less than 1 per cent of households use iodized salt, contributing to a goitre rate of 22 per cent.
• In northern Sudan, female genital mutilation – a practice causing irreparable harm to girls – remains a problem.
• More than half of children ages 6 to 13 in Darfur, and nearly three quarters of school-age children in Southern Sudan, are not in school. Only about 1 per cent of girls complete primary school in Southern Sudan.

Activities and results for children

• The Southern Sudan peace agreement allowed humanitarian aid to reach a wider area, and has increased international donors’ willingness to contribute.
• Hundreds of thousands of previously displaced women and children have begun returning to their homes in Southern Sudan. UNICEF and its partners are supplying shelter, medical and nutritional assistance, educational materials and training, sanitation and safe water.
• A massive campaign to immunize nearly 10 million children has reduced measles cases from 400,000 to 1,200 in just two years. A polio eradication programme vaccinated 7 million children; after reporting 125 polio cases in 2004, Sudan saw only 26 confirmed cases in 2005. UNICEF and its partners also delivered vitamin A supplements and 1.5 million yellow fever vaccinations.
• In Darfur and northern Sudan, UNICEF and its partners provided safe water and other essential health services for millions of people, cutting child mortality rates by more than half.
• UNICEF and its partners established feeding programmes in Southern Sudan for 100,000 malnourished children. In Darfur, the global malnutrition rate dropped by almost half.
• The construction and rehabilitation of schools has allowed nearly half a million children to resume their education. Enrolment rates in Darfur have reached all-time highs.