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Summary

The present report, submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions on children and armed conflict, is the seventh report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Sudan and covers the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021.

The report documents the effects of conflict on children in the Sudan, highlighting trends in and patterns of the six grave violations against children, and contains, where available, information on perpetrators. In addition, it outlines information on the progress made in addressing grave violations against children, including through dialogue with parties.

The report includes a series of recommendations addressed to all parties to the conflict aimed at ending and preventing grave violations against children and strengthening child protection in the Sudan.

I. Introduction

1. The present report, prepared pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions on children and armed conflict, covers the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. It is the seventh report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Sudan to be submitted to the Security Council and its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. The report highlights trends in and patterns of grave violations committed against children by parties to the conflict in the Sudan and contains details of the progress made to end and prevent such violations since the previous report (S/2020/614) and the adoption by the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict of its conclusions on the situation of children and armed conflict in the Sudan (S/AC.51/2020/7). It also contains information on progress and challenges in the dialogue with parties to the conflict. Where possible, parties to conflict responsible for grave violations are identified. In the annexes to the most recent report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (A/76/871-S/2022/493), under List A of listed parties that had not put in place measures during the reporting period to improve the protection of children, five armed groups are listed for the recruitment and use of children, namely, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minawi (SLA-MM), the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) Abdelaziz al-Hilu faction, the SPLM-N Malik Agar faction and the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid (SLA-AW). Apart from the latter, all armed groups have in the past signed action plans with the United Nations.

2. The information contained in the present report was verified by the United Nations country task force on monitoring and reporting in the Sudan, co-chaired by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Resident Coordinator, and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) until its withdrawal in December 2020. Since January 2021, the country task force has been chaired by the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) and UNICEF. Challenges relating to insecurity in and access to conflict-affected areas significantly hampered the documentation and verification of grave violations against children. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and related response measures in 2020, including restrictions on movement, further exacerbated those challenges. Therefore, the information contained in the report does not represent the full extent of grave violations committed against children in the Sudan during the reporting period, and the actual number of violations is likely to be higher. Where incidents were committed earlier but verified only during the reporting period, that information is qualified as relating to an incident that was verified at a later date.