UNICEF Issues Rare Child Alert for Sudans Darfur

GENEVA, April 28 - The United Nations Children's Fund issued a rare Child Alert on Tuesday for Sudan's Darfur region, warning that five million children face extreme deprivation as the country's civil war enters its fourth year.

The alert, the first for Darfur in 20 years, signals a critical threshold in the crisis. "Children are at a breaking point across the region," Sheldon Yett, UNICEF's representative in Sudan, said via video link from Port Sudan. "Childhood is again defined by fear, by loss. Homes have been burned, schools and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed."

Darfur, in western Sudan, has been a center of violence in the conflict that began in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting includes ethnically charged attacks and echoes atrocities from a 2003 conflict, when rebels rose against the government and Arab militias were deployed in response.

In El Fasher, North Darfur's regional capital, the impact on children has been severe. The city, held by government forces until overrun by Rapid Support Forces following a prolonged siege last October, has seen more than 1,500 verified grave violations against...