At least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), but that number is likely much higher than that.
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The group reported that “children are frequently walking through the desert for days and getting to Tawila exhausted and deeply distressed.”
“Many travelers are terrified of the armed groups they encountered on the way.” During the chaos of flight, many people separated from their parents, while others are thought to have vanished, been detained, or died.
After an 18-month siege that prevented residents of Sudan’s north-central region from getting food, medicine, and other essential supplies, the RSF took control of El-Fasher, Sudan’s capital, on October 26.
Since April 2023, the paramilitary group has been accused of carrying out numerous sexual assaults, kidnappings, and mass killings in its annexation of Sudan.
The RSF claims that rogue actors are to blame for the actions of civilians and has stopped aid.
However, Volker Turk, the UN’s director of human rights, claimed in mid-November that the “atrocities” that have occurred in El-Fasher “constitute the gravest of crimes.”
According to the most recent UN figures, more than 100 000 people have fled El-Fasher, with many seeking refuge in nearby Chad.
Meanwhile, the NRC reported on Thursday that it had received at least 15, 000 new visitors to Tawila, which is located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from El-Fasher, since October 26. According to the report, more than 200 children are registered each day on average.
Children arrive with “signs of acute trauma,” according to Nidaa, a teacher with the humanitarian organization’s Tawila education program.
Some of the students could not speak at all when we first began our classes. She claimed that some people were having nightmares when they woke up. They describe being separated from family in the chaos, traveling at night, and hiding for hours.
fears of trafficking in people
According to humanitarian organizations, the newly populated displacement camps in Tawila are becoming overpopulated as a result of the arrival of newcomers from El-Fasher and its nearby villages.
In the midst of months of fighting in the area, the Sudanese American Physicians Association estimated in early November that more than 650, 000 internally displaced people had sought refuge in Tawila.
In a report released on November 5, the organization reported that nearly a quarter of displaced residents (74%) were living in informal communities without adequate infrastructure, and that only 10% of displaced households had reliable access to latrines or water.
According to the report, “These circumstances make Tawila effectively a stand-alone crisis epicentre, not just an overflow from el-Fasher.”
A group of UN experts also made the warning that Sudanese women and girls are now at greater risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking as a result of the region’s deteriorating situation.
According to the experts, displacement children are also becoming more prone to being recruited to fight in the escalating conflict.
The alarming reports of human trafficking since the [RSF] took control of el-Fasher and surrounding areas have raised “our deep concern,” they said in a statement.
Women, unaccompanied and separated children are at increased risk of sexual violence and exploitation because “women and girls have been abducted in RSF-controlled areas.”
Source: Aljazeera
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