The Impact of North-South War 1983-2005on Children in the

Sudan

Dr. Faiz Omar Mohammad Jamie

Sep.2014

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Impact of North-South War 1983-2005 on Children in the Sudan

Dr. Faiz Omar Mohammd Jamie1

Abstract

This paper deals with the impact of the war that took place between North and South

Sudan (1983-2005) before Secession of South Sudan. It was by definition the most

severe civil war that took place in the Sudan, and considered to be the longest internal

conflict in the continent. The paper holds the opinion that, the war brought much

destruction in the economic infrastructure in the country; however the highest cost of

that war was its human cost, in terms of lost lives, disabilities caused, disappearance of

persons, orphans, widowed women, disintegration of families producing phenomena of

homeless and street children, apart from war-related child abduction….etc. the paper

shall broadly touch on the adjustments introduced by the government on the current

formal basic education programs as a result of extra demand due to war-motivated

population movement, reflecting on the point as a consequence of war furthering the

burden of war on children.

Introduction

This paper shall try to assess the high cost of this war in terms

of lost human lives, disabled, ever-increasing number of missing

army men, tribesmen, children, and women. This high human cost

is believed to be by far beyond any other cost of it. This cost

1 Associate Professor in Political Science-University of Bahri Director, Centre for Peace and Development Studies.

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is as well an unprecedented drain of human resources ever

experienced in the modern history of the Sudan. The scope of the

war and its side-effects has covered almost 25% of the total area

of the country; accordingly the directly affected population is

more or less 25% of the total population of the country. The

focus here is on the impact of war on children, however women and

children are hardly separable parties. This evident

interconnection can be traced in many parts of this paper.

The interesting role of urban women, in the war, was well

documented in the valuable book titled "Samra'a Al-Sudan"

published by P.D.F., detailing the development of role of women

in mobilization of "Zad almujahid" extending of medical support,

and direct participation in military operations, crowned by

declaration of some women martyrs. What has not been mentioned

in the said publication was the corresponding role played by

rural women in Kordofan and Darfur, traditional areas of tribal

conflicts, where women are customarily involved in war

activities, mostly stimulating bravery of men warriors. It is

unmistakable that Sudanese rural women pioneered to participate

in the war effort, be they local poets "Hakama", foodstuff

donators, or even actual female fighters beside male fighters.

Apart from that, the mentioned publication remains of good value

documenting for roles played by Sudanese women.

The paper aims to provide an analysis of the way in which

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children as associates of women, were affected by the effects of

the armed conflict, that took place (in the North-South conflict)

in the Sudan. The rationale behind that is the fact that, the

prevailing literature on conflict in the Sudan, hardly focuses on

children, amidst abundant literature on lost lives, disabilities,

….etc. Apart from that the paper aims to understand the response

of the Sudanese government regarding needs of displaced children

in the area of education health and other concerns.

Population in the Sudan

Let us first look into how the situation looked – like in this

country in the pre – 1983 period in terms of population

formation, in order to be able to assess the impact of the war in

the light of the the discussion that follows. The said situation

has been influenced by many factors leading to the formation of

the existing make – up; the emergence of the Sudanese nation –

state out of the big (historic) Sudanic zone. Therefore the

interaction between diverse ethnic entities, informed the "bridge

theory" as a stereotype image the Sudan, as a bridge between

North Africa and black Africa south of the Sahara, owing a lot to

the population movements from neighboring countries as refugees

and successive repatriation efforts assisted by the international

community in the region.

The total number of the Sudanese people according to 1983

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population census was estimated to be 20, 5 million persons,

living in a approximate area of 1 million square miles, the

resulting population density is more than 8 persons per 1 square

Kilometer. The country was divided into 9 regions comprising 18

provinces. 68% out of total population live in rural areas that

was 14.5 million, whereas 20% out of the same total live in urban

areas, and almost 11% lead nomadic mode of life.

More than 5 million Sudanese live in the southern part of it,

that was nearly 25% of the total population with a little bit

lower figure in population density (persons per 1 sq. kilometer),

than the national figure. However the most populated region over

the country was the central region which hosts move the 4 million

people 20% of the population, whereas the least populated region

is the Northern region over whose land live 1 million people less

than 5% of the population.

By the year 1983 population of the capital city was only 1,8

in of whom 72% live in urban centres. The overall population

density was little more than 04 persons per 1 square kilometer,

more than twice of the figure of the central region. Latter on

the biggest receiving area of Internally Displaced population

(I.D.P), Khartoum region which was, as well receiving area for

rural – urban migrations, education seekers, drought – affected

population movements … etc.. Out of a total area of 2.5 million

square kilometer (Sudan) Khartoum region occupies only 1%

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transformed into a residential area for 8% of the Sudan people.

Children and War in the Sudan

Children below 5 years in the Sudan make up a high percentage of

total population of the country (National population Policy

Document 2001). Before that Sudan was considered by U.N.

standards to have more than 25% of unregistered child population

(State of world's children 2000)1. Therefore discussion on

children affairs in the Sudan is so serious that the issue seems

to be concerning more or less half of the citizens, if we

considered U.N remark on unregistered children.

The issue of children raised a lot of controversy during the

second round of the civil war (post 1983), our concern here lies

on the recent practice of SPLA as regards child abduction for

military recruitment. It's common sense that for SPLA to

continue fighting, it has to secure whatever source to compensate

for the dead, lost or the getaway from among its recruits. It is

also common sense again that normal recruitment modes include

motivators; like good pay expectation in professional armies, and

other voluntary motivators, ideological, racial, mercenary or

else in guerilla movements SPLA is necessarily not a professional

army, it is rather a guerilla movement where the relevant mode of

recruitment involves what we termed voluntary motivators, SPLA

tried all the said mechanism adding another unusual mode child

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abduction, in which case children were forcibly taken from their

parents in SPLA – controlled areas and villages among other

things including cattle and women.

Circumstances of war are conducive to all sorts of tragic

situations. In 1996 the U.N compiled its annual report on the

state of children in areas of conflict; the following quotation

of that report would illustrate better such situation:

"The conflict has already claimed more than 500,000 lives and

displaced huge numbers of people. Among these were at least

20,000 children, mostly boys between 7 - 17 years of age who were

separated from their families. Those lost boys of the Sudan

trekked enormous distances over a vast in forgiving wilderness,

seeking refuge from the fighting. Hungry, frightened and

weakened by sleeplessness and disease they crossed from Sudan

into Ethiopia and back with many dying along the way, the

survivors are now in camps between Kenya, Uganda and the Sudan" 2

Indeed in such circumstances a military unit can be a better

refuge, or a kind of alternative family. The indication here is

to the effect that in such situations abduction is most likely to

be a favor rather than a crime. Moreover involvement of children

in war affairs is not a strange pheromone in the region. In

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neighboring Uganda the same report went on to say that the

National Resistance Army had an estimated 3000 children many

under 16 years including 500 girls mostly orphans, who consider

the Army as replacement for their parents and families.

Children's actual duties in warfare cover the whole range of

military activities, however at relatively quiet times they may

be used in cooking, carrying water, and they have exceptional

value as messengers and spies.

The U.N. secretary – General Representative for Children in

Conflict Areas presented his report to the U.N. Human Rights

Committee is 8th meeting at Geneva, where he stated that at

Rumbek alone there were about 8000 child soldiers of whom the

UNCEF managed to free or demobilize 3500 out of them, to the U.S

rather than to the Sudan(H.A.C). The rest of these children are

still in the bush, carrying on their military activities, which

the international community repeatedly condemned through a

network of declarations, campaigns and agreements for the last

decade, since world leaders adopted the convention on the Rights

of the child in 1989 and then confirmed their commitment for

children and adolescents at the 1990 world summit on children.3

Beside war impact on children in Sudan, other factors also

further their negative situation. Fresh UN reports rank the

Sudan the 43rd among 189 surveyed countries, where infant

mortality rate is most high out of every thousand children 115

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died in the year 20004. The rate is considered a critical

indicator of the condition of children of the Sudan which is

listed among top 50 countries5 with unfavorable state for them

according to other standards.

One other indirect impact of war upon children is the phenomena

of street boys or "sons of the sun" as they are locally named

these are population of homeless children, boys and girls alike

wondering around town streets aimlessly, their only concern is to

secure living whatsoever. Khartoum as capital is most affected

by this phenomenon. War is one contributing factor driving

children who lost their families one way or another due to the

war, or children of soldiers who are away of their families for

many years at hot operation areas and many other war-related

motivations other than displacement. Other factors for the

phenomena include rural-urban migration, drought – motivated

migration and other types of population movements. All these

factors contribute, besides sheer poverty in forming this

marginal childhood, as a significant source of potential Juvenile

delinquent, beggars, drug addicts, …. etc. Khartoum alone is said

to be hosting some 6000 of boys and girls called "Shammasa"6 In

conclusion most of the surveys and studies on this field confirm

that war is one big factor among others to the phenomenon.

Another aspect of close association to this subject is the issue

of internal abduction, not necessarily for children but for

captives whoever they are. This has also been subject to

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political maneuvers against the Sudan by western circles as a

case of slavery. Unfortunately this has been encouraged by some

alleged research findings done by some Sudanese scholars7, to the

effect that slavery is a common practice by some Arab tribes

against other non-Arab tribes. However the fact is that most

nomadic tribes has a long tradition of violent conflicts over

grazing areas and else, bringing about a series of wars raids and

quarrels most often involving captives from both waring parties,

including children, women, and livestock. The traditional

practice is that these captives are used to strengthen each

party's negotiating position over the other during the process of

customary resolution of conflicts, where the warring parties are

made to sit down and settle human and material casualties

according to customary laws and traditions sometimes captives may

stay for long periods of time depending on the life cycle of the

conflict. An outsider may not get the impression, that this is

actual slavery, but a participant observer won’t come to that

conclusion, nor will a self – respecting academic.

Victims of Sexually – Transmitted Diseases (STD)

The Sudan is definitely not among the most affected African

states with HIV/AIDS infections, this new plague killing more

people than armed conflicts. Nearly 70% of new HIV/AID

infections world-wide occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa while

countries to the south of Africa are so – called global epicenter

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of the epidemics. UN attributes this high rate to South Africa's

end of isolation in the post apartheid era with high rates of

transmission by migrant workers from within and outside the

country, and slow progress in public information campaigns8.

The story of the Sudan with AIDS is very much associated with

migrations. The disease was traced in the Sudan as back as

1986; (National Population Policy 2000) and was particularly high

among refugees and city dwellers where sex workers could be

found. Population movements from neighboring countries

facilitated transfer of the disease. In Kenya for example 22% of

girls in the age 15 – 19 and 35% of young men tested HIV

positive. Population movements in the region were intensified by

armed conflicts, in north Uganda for more than 15 years, in

Ethiopia for the last two decades, and in addition to the this

new brand of war, between Sudan and Eritrea. It was however

understood that S.T.D. infections tend to rise during wars which

lead to forced migration. Since 1986 rate of infections was on

constant rise in Sudan until it was 6000 cases by the end of

2001. Let us quote Dr. Warren Naamara.

"Migrations therefore increases and complicates the mixing

of HIV Sub-types in a manner that will not only make vaccine

development a problem, but also further complicate the evolution

of the epidemic within the recipient and donating populations”9.

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Carriers of virus include (among other sectors) soldiers,

returnees from military operation area, refugees and other

foreign population interacting with citizens in eastern cities,

Kassala, Gadaref and Port Sudan. Khartoum being the capital

city, where everybody comes, for every reason, actually host

almost all those infected. War – related occurrence of the

disease was identified in the south well before it was known in

the east in which armed conflicts along borders broke out only in

the mid nineties of last century. Otherwise eastern and southern

borders of the country are most potential entry doors for the

incoming virus, unlike the western and northern borders where

least or no virus entry record was noticed. That could possibly

be due to the fact that nignbouring nations over western and

northern borders are Muslims, whereas those over southern and

eastern frontiers are mostly non-Muslims, it is relevant I think

here to check professor Mazurie on recent studies on AIDs in

Africa showing that rate of occurrence of disease is lower among

Muslim than it is among non- Muslim. It is even noticeable that

concentration of disease incidence in Africa reveals that central

and southern (non – Muslim) Africa is most affected in relation

to Muslim North Africa. Recent survey in Ivory Coast indicates

that Muslim communities are less vulnerable to the disease by 50%

than their fellow non- Muslim citizens. Professor Mazurie has

brought to our notice the role of religious culture in the

dissemination of the disease worldwide.

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Considerable HIV cases were first known in Equatoria State

(Southern Sudan) in the early 1990s. But then afterwards other

cases were detected in the capital city, mostly due to normal

population movement and forced migration of displaces. Dr. Jamie

(Pathologist) of Aaazhari University stated that HIV test became

a routine before any blood donation is to be accepted within

Khartoum state. This is indicative of high awareness among

Sudanese medical authorities rather than an evidence of high out

brake phenomenon.

The belief is that disease victims and potential victim are found

within urban areas, rather than rural ones. The main sending

cities of victim are Juba Port Sudan, Kassala and Gadarif, not to

mention some other minor sources. Despite the fact that HIV/AIDs

is most significant virus disease among STD, as direct impact of

war adding to the human cost of it, other disease also contribute

to that cost, Malnutrition, water-transmitted disease,

Tuberculosis and other evident diseases in camps and settlements,

(of less significance compared to HIV/AIDs).

Challenges in basic Education of Displaced Children

In principle education policy emanates from, and is a development

of, a nation's identity, involving a planned and an intellectual

plan of action towards continuity of cultural characters. On that

ground and as the country lacks consensus on identity issues,

education policies are often subject to controversy every now and

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then. It is therefore quite evident that North-South war is a

violent and extreme manifestation of that very controversy.

However our concern here is primarily on the education of the

internally displaced population as a formal response of the

hosting society to that genuine need. The problem is so complex

that other partners than the government exerted efforts each from

a different perspective to deliver education as a humanitarian

service badly needed by the displaced. The total number of

school-age children is estimated to be two million, as exact

figures hardly exist. Displaced population came from more than 60

ethno linguistic groups. Their language competencies and

knowledge were varied and complex. Some speak their local

languages, others bilingual, others are monolingual Arabic

speakers. However the main lingua franca commonly used by most

IDPs is simple Arabic. Muslims and Christians are minority

believers; however the majority is adherents of traditional

African beliefs. The point here is that education of displaced

children in the Sudan is so complex that it involves, cultural,

linguistic, religious, political and humanitarian problems, not

usually encountered in other similar cases.

Other partners involved in displace education process include,

U.N. agencies, foreign government, international N.G.Os.,

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Churches and Church organization. All these actors took part in

the formulation of educational policies and strategies for the

internally displaced school-age children. However Sudan

government has a declared strategy for education of IDP, the main

features of which include.

- The use of one national curriculum

- The use of Arabic language as a sole medium of instruction

with English as a subject.

- The non-use of vernacular languages in basic education

level.

- The full government control of all schools.

- Centralization of educational planning

- Consolidation of religion and religiosity in educational

system.

The government since long has taken many measurements to

encounter education of displacees as a humanitarian obligation.

In 1989 the Council of Ministers formed the National Committee

for education of displaced children and students from southern

Sudan, one year later, recommendations of National Conference on

Displaced Issues convened in March 1990, were adopted.

Accordingly, that committee was dissolved and the Federal

Ministry of Education took over its responsibilities and duties.

All displaced schools including those established by N.G.Os, were

to be phased out and were integrated into regular government

schools starting from the academic year 1991- 1992.

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Before the convening of the “National Conference on Displaced

1990”, and the "National Dialogue Conference on Peace Issues in

Sudan" in September, 1989, it was natural that both conferences

discussed educational issues, however contrary to previous

language polices in education, both conferences emphasized the

significance of the use of vernacular language particularly in

basic levels. However in general the assessment of progress

towards goals and targets on displaced education, the report

reveals the following:

“There is now an operational educational system for displaced in

southern Sudan, transition zone, and Khartoum state. Hundreds of

schools have been built from scratch, supplied with furniture

educational materials. The most difficult to reach children along

the Nile corridors are now reached by barge and provided with

educational services. Traumatized school children and

unaccompanied minors are being attended to. Thousands of

displaced teachers as well as non-displaced volunteers and

salaried-teachers are now being trained."

However it has to be noted that in such a country as wide as the

Sudan, a lot needs to be done to realize an actual progress.

Nonetheless reports on education show that basic school

enrollment in displaced camps at Khartoum state is extremely low

at less than 25% of school-age population, girls enrollment

totals half that of boys, however girls situation in southern

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Sudan is even worse, for every five boys only one girl is in

school. Teacher/student ratio is one teacher for every 47

students.

UNICEF addressed the problem of girl's education by applying

innovative strategies together with teacher training programs

including distance learning approach aiming to improve teacher

quality. A total of 3700 teachers were planned to be trained in

1995 alone.

UNICEF as a major actor in education of displaced identifies

particular target groups for special attention. The so-called

Emergency Education program initially targeted displaced and war-

affected school-age children. This group included more than

480,000 children in southern Sudan, Transition Zone and Khartoum

state. The program is oriented for the children in especially

Difficult Circumstances (CEDC) which include:

- War-Traumatized children in and out of school for whom

special training programs were designed and supported to train

teachers to understand and treat them.

- An estimated 65,000 unaccompanied children are targeted for

attention. They are children as young as 8 years old who started

to wonder between Sudan and Ethiopia since 1989.

- Hard to reach children are school-age children living in

villages and towns along barge corridors of Operation Life Line

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Sudan (OLS) specially Juba Corridor, Tonja-Fanyak corridor,

Nassir corridor and Renk corridor.

- A Mobile Emergency Education Project by barge was planned in

1995 to benefit some 270,000 children as a joint venture with

W.F.P. While the latter distributed food assistance by barges,

UNICEF accompanying team distributes education kits to revive

basic education along barge routes.

- Adolescents, either school non-attendees or dropouts as

targeted by UNICEF for a supported project aiming to integrate

the children at higher grades of formal basic education.

- War-affected rural areas children in southern Sudan and Nuba

mountains are targeted by Islamic N.G.Os., among them is,

Mawafag, Islamic Call Foundations which offer integrated

services programs at pre-school and basic education levels.

Concluding Remarks and Recommendations

This paper has attempted to assess the magnitude of the

human cost of the war by probing into various aspects where

victims fall due to war and war impacts. Victims could be lost

lives, missing people, abducted child/soldiers, HIV/AIDs patients

and others. These are only examples indicative of the evils of

wars on humanity. This paper strongly holds the belief that this

human price is really very high to be paid in exchange for

conflicts of uncertain results between parties sharing a number

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of commonalties.

Since the start of the war between North and South, figures of

all types of victims were on constant rise. The battle field was

southern Sudan, and neighboring northern Uganda, another area

full of, violence, unrest, and of dissatisfaction against central

authority. The two areas soon developed similarities, both areas

comprise close ethnic groups, while SPLA war was launched from

Southern Sudan, National Resistance Army (N.R.A.) war is

launched from N. Uganda. SPLA was using Ugandan land and

facilities, (N.R.A.). is currently using Sudanese land with or

without the consent of government of Sudan, very few could known.

Therefore bilateral relations between the two countries were

never warm or friendly, SPLA and L.R.A. shared the inhuman

experience of child abduction for military recruitment proposes.

The analysis in this paper, involved a series of interviews,

contacts, scrutiny of reports, in pursuit of quantifiable

atrocities of this conflict in terms of what we called impacts of

the war. But each individual impact produces another in a

multiplier – effect like mechanism. Lost lives mean more orphans

and widows means distorted social fabric, means poverty,

illiteracy prevalence of war ethics. Physical disability means

psychological imbalance, social burden, and idleness. More

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orphans mean more street boys more Juvenile delinquents Displaced

camps and settlements means acute economic disparities between

social strata, more means security requirements. These circles

are endless (impacts) destructive elements of human life, social

fabric, and value – systems of affected societies of both warring

parties however they are. The cynical fact is that war is

decided by politicians to be carried – out by soldiers to be

ultimately suffered by civilian tax – payers who usually

innocently pay the bill of that war.

Displacement somewhere means food shortage somewhere else, in

other words wars and armed conflicts result in lack of security

necessary for farmers to grow their food products. In our case

southern Sudan is a place of scarce food supplies since long time

before, obviously because of the war. It was clear that since

1986 Sudan was party to Operation Lifeline Sudan (together with

U.N. and SPLM/SPLA) a tripartite treaty launched by international

organization on humanitarian basis, extending all sorts of

supplies for war-affected population in the South and other

places where displaced are found.

If ever this paper offers as a recommendation, will be to conduct

more research on the effects of armed conflict on children,

particularly in the Sudan, where children make up to 45% of the

population on the one hand, on the other conflict in the Sudan

seems to be a never-ending phenomena. Consequently we shall have

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the challenge of exerting more effort to understand the impact of

that in the long run.

Endnotes and References

1 UNFP, State of World’s Children 2000, p 75.2 UNFPA, State of World’s Children 1990.

3 Faiz Jamie, “The Impact of the Civil War on Population Mobility and Character”, Ph.D Thesis, University of Juba,2003.

4 UNFPA, State of World’s Children, 2000.

5 Ibid.

6 Report by the National Council for the Welfare of Children 1996.

7 Dr. Mahmoud Ushari is among Sudanese scholars who made in his writings indications to slavery in the1980s.

8 Africa Confidential Issue Dec. 1998.

9 "HIV/AIDA Epidemic and Trafficking", paper presented by Dr. Warren Naamara to the International Migration Policy Conference, Kenya, May 2002.