A report by Brenda Salazar and Olivia Cash, Genocide Watch
March 2025
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been fighting for control of Sudan since April 2023. This brutal power struggle has killed over 60,000 people and has displaced millions. Over 30 million people in Sudan need humanitarian aid.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has caused a severe child protection crisis. Over 10 million children have been exposed to brutal violence due to the indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure by SAF and RSF. Many have witnessed the killing of their family, the destruction of their homes, and the massacre of entire villages. More than 200 children, some as young as one, have been raped.
This hostile environment, coupled with the worsening humanitarian crisis, has left children vulnerable to organized criminal gangs and the risk of recruitment by the conflicting parties.
What is a child soldier?
A child soldier is any individual under the age of 18 who has been recruited by an armed force or group and participates in a conflict, either directly or indirectly.
Both the RSF and SAF and their allied forces have recruited children. Videos of child soldiers from across Sudan have been posted on social media.
Siobhán Mullaly, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, reported that RSF target unaccompanied and impoverished children from the outskirts of the Khartoum, as well as those from Arab tribes in Darfur and West Kordofan. She also received information suggesting that over 600 RSF child soldiers were killed or injured fighting in Khartoum in August 2023. In River Nile state, children as young as ten have been handed loaded automatic rifles.
Causes of Child Recruitment in Sudan
Whilst many children are harassed or intimidated into recruitment by armed forces, others are driven to join militias as a means of surviving Sudan’s widespread extreme poverty. Some families see recruitment as employment, with parents even pushing their children into the military.
© 2025 Sudan Human Rights Hub [In the photo on the left, shared on X account on 20 August 2023, the boy shown is wearing a green T-shirt and has ammunition around his neck waving one hand in the air]. [The video from which the photo on the right was extracted shows a collage of imagery of soldiers in various places. It was posted on 5 August 2023 on X, also from the RSF’s official account. It shows several people who seem to be young men and could be child soldiers].
New RSF recruits are being rewarded with stolen food and aid. The UN Special Rapporteur for contemporary slavery, Tomoya Obokata, stated that recruiting children in exchange for food and safety amounts to forced labor and contemporary slavery under international law.
Local leaders are key facilitators of child recruitment in Sudan, acting at the request of local RSF chiefs or RSF allied militias. Traditions and customs also play a significant role in encouraging children to join both the RSF and SAF. The faza’a (الفزع) tradition allows tribal leaders to mobilize their members, including children, to engage in combat.
What Does the Law Say About Recruitment of Child Soldiers?
Child soldiers are exposed to extreme physical and psychological trauma. Child soldiers frequently suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and low self-esteem, making it difficult for them to reintegrate into society. They are also at higher risk of substance abuse, anger issues, criminal behavior, and social isolation. In extreme cases, they may engage in serious violent crimes such as murder, sexual violence, or mutilation, or struggle with suicidal tendencies.
Several treaties aim to protect children in armed conflict. According to the UN Human Rights Council, the recruitment of children by armed groups for any form of exploitation, including combat roles, constitutes a violation of human rights, a serious crime, and a breach of international humanitarian law. The Rome Statute also establishes the enlistment of children into armed forces or groups as a war crime.
Sudan is a signatory to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which forbids the participation of children under 18 in armed conflicts. Sudan’s Child Act of 2010 also forbids child soldiers recruitment. Despite the existence of these legal frameworks, the Sudanese government, along with the RSF and allied forces, have been complicit in severe human rights violations against children by recruiting children to serve in their ranks.
Genocide Watch urges:
The UN Security Council to create a Commission of Inquiry to report on crimes being committed in Sudan.
All parties involved in the conflict to respect and protect humanitarian personnel, property, and relief items used for humanitarian operations, premises, and warehouses.
International actors to increase their efforts to free/liberate child soldiers, reintegrate them into local communities, and provide them with access to schooling, as per the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups.
The UN to develop child-sensitive reintegration and rehabilitation programs for children formerly associated with armed forces and groups, along with survivor-centered, gender-sensitive services and assistance programs for survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
The UN Security Council to authorize reestablishment of a powerful UN/AU force to stop these crimes.
The African Union and UN to deploy 10,000 troops to re-establish their peacemaking mission in Sudan.