Nine-year-old Abkar Mohammed spends his days cleaning and polishing shoes on the streets of Port Sudan. He arrived in the eastern city with his mother and three siblings from Khartoum shortly after the armed conflict erupted on April 15, 2023. Having lost his father before the fighting began, the family now lives in a rented home within a low-income neighbourhood. Due to their financial situation, Abkar does not attend formal school, though he studies the Quran at a traditional khalwa. After his lessons, he walks to busy areas with his shoe-cleaning equipment and returns home before sunset.
Abkar earns around 1,000 Sudanese pounds, equivalent to about $0.11, for each pair of shoes he cleans or stitches. By the end of the day, his total earnings reach approximately 10,000 pounds, or $1.08, which he hands over to his mother to help cover daily household expenses. His 23-year-old brother also takes on casual jobs in local markets to support the family. Abkar’s daily struggle reflects the harsh reality faced by millions of children across the country.
According to UNICEF, eight million of Sudan’s 17 million school-age children are currently out of school. In Darfur, one of the regions hardest hit by the violence, about 80 percent of schools remain closed, leaving 70 percent of children without access to classes.
Save the Children estimates that students in Sudan have missed an average of about 484 days of classroom learning since the conflict began. This is driven by prolonged closures, active fighting, widespread displacement, and severe damage to educational facilities.
The Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023, has faced accusations of targeting schools and universities with drone strikes, alongside 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, warned that children in conflict zones like Darfur and parts of Kordofan face the greatest risk of permanently losing their education. She noted dire impacts for girls.
Ishag reported that school dropouts, child marriage, and sexual violence have all been recorded among displaced populations. Girls face additional hurdles, including adolescent pregnancy and rising domestic responsibilities that block their return to classrooms. Without schools to serve as safe environments, children become increasingly vulnerable to child labour, early marriage, recruitment by armed groups, trafficking, and family separation.
Eva Hinds, UNICEF’s head of advocacy and communication in Sudan, stated that nearly half of all school buildings in the country no longer function as classrooms due to war damage. Hinds explained that displaced children face severe barriers as repeated displacement cuts them off from teachers, classmates, and learning materials.
She warned that prolonged absences from school deepen existing inequalities and threaten to leave a generation unable to contribute to the nation’s future recovery. Psychologist Hanaa Mohamed added that constant fear, sleep disturbances, and concentration difficulties are widespread among children coping with displacement. She noted that these pressures have triggered behavioural changes such as increased aggression and social withdrawal.
Sudan’s economy has been set back 30 years by the war, with 60 percent of the population now living in poverty. Families fleeing the fighting often arrive in new towns with few resources and little prospect of adult employment, forcing parents to rely on their children for income.
Saliha Omer, a street tea seller in Port Sudan, said her meagre finances prevented her from enrolling her 11-year-old son, who currently works at a local grocery shop. Sixteen-year-old Mahmoud al-Ghali has also spent the last three years selling sweets and crisps on the streets of Port Sudan to support his relatives, abandoning any hope of returning to his studies.
