Nine-year-old Abkar Mohammed works cleaning and polishing shoes on the streets of Port Sudan every day. He arrived in the eastern Sudanese city with his mother and three siblings from Khartoum days after the country’s armed conflict erupted on April 15, 2023. Abkar lost his father before the war began and the family live in a rented a home in al-Kasara, a low-income neighbourhood in Port Sudan.
Due to the family’s financial situation, he doesn’t go to school but does attend classes at a traditional “khalwa” where he learns the Quran. He gives the money to his mother to cover the family’s daily needs. Abkar’s story echoes the lives of eight million of the country’s 17 million school-age children who are out of school, according to UNICEF.
In Darfur, one of the areas of Sudan hardest hit by the war, about 80 percent of schools remained closed with 70 percent of children in the area not attending classes. Save the Children estimates that children in Sudan have missed on average about 484 days of classroom learning since the war began in April 2023, due to prolonged school closures, fighting, displacement and damage to education facilities. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since 2023, has been accused of targeting schools and universities in drone strikes, along with other civilian infrastructure.
In September 2026, a drone attack on two warehouses in North Kordofan destroyed more than 330,000 school textbooks and other learning materials. Sulaima Ishag, head of the Government Advisory Council for Women and Children, told Al Jazeera that children who live in conflict zones, such as Darfur and parts of Kordofan, are at greatest risk of permanently losing access to education. This can have a dire impact on their future, particularly for girls.
It also takes a significant psychological and social toll on children … [particularly those] from the poorest families … even in areas considered relatively safe.” Eva Hinds, UNICEF’s head of advocacy and communication in Sudan, said that nearly half of all school buildings in the country no longer function as classrooms, due to war damage. Children who no longer attend school lose access to a safe space and are exposed to the risks associated with child labour, recruitment by armed groups, and other abuses. Hinds warned that the longer children remain out of school, the harder it will become for them to make up for lost learning.
This disruption can deepen existing inequalities and mean that a generation of Sudanese children and young people will be unable to contribute to the country’s future peace, recovery and development. The consequences extend far beyond the classroom,” said Hinds. Psychologist Hanaa Mohamed told Al Jazeera that prolonged displacement and interruptions to schooling have taken a significant psychological toll on children.
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