Washington, home of the pbs,
weeknights on pbs.
John: Air strikes and artillery
fire intensified today in parts
of Sudan, where fighting enters
its eleventh week.
At least 860 people have lost
their lives and more than half a
million people have fled the
country.
The conflict in this northeast
African nation pits government
forces against a rival
paramilitary faction. Both sides
have been accused of human
rights violations.
Ali rogin has the latest on the
traumatic effects of violence on
Sudan's children.
Ali: As control of Sudan hangs
in the balance, so too do the
lives and futures of more than 1
million children displaced by
the violence. Many of these
children have been displaced
within the country itself. In
addition to humanitarian
assistance, many are seeking
physical and psychological
healing from the deep scars of
war.
Dr. Arif Noor is one of the
people on the ground helping the
children of Sudan through this
crisis.
He is the Sudan country director
for save the children.
Dr. Noor, thank you so much for
joining us. You've been and your
organization have been on the
ground in Sudan for well before
this fighting started. There's
long been need for your services
there.
What has changed about the needs
of children since this fighting
began?
Arif Noor: Around 16 million
people in the country were in
need of humanitarian assistance.
But since the conflict has
broken out, this number has
increased by 56%.
And now almost half of the
population of the country is in
need of dire humanitarian
assistance.
And of these almost 25 million
people, more than 12 million are
children.
They have been exposed to the
sights, the sounds and of the
violence around them.
So even if they are not directly
seeing people hurt or killed,
they are hearing stories of
their friends, family members
being killed, being injured, and
that has had serious
consequences for their mental
and psychosocial well-being.
Many children have lost their
lives, and many more have been
displaced inside the country.
Ali: What have you been hearing
about what those journeys have
been like for the children?
Do they tend to be accompanied
by adults?
What does that look like?
Arif Noor: While the children
move away from the conflict
affected areas they may be
running away from the conflict,
but that doesn't mean that they
are still out of danger.
For example, exploitation,
abuse, and many times sexual
abuse, especially of young
girls.
That has been going on at a
scale which has been
unprecedented in Sudan.
Many times they are received at
concentration points which do
not have access to nutritious
food, clean drinking water,
proper sanitation facilities.
These places are many times
overcrowded.
So that's the kind of situation
that children are facing right
now.
Ali: Dr. Noor, I want to play
you what one of your
psychologists said.
>> At bedtime, when his mother
asks him to sleep, he refuses
and sits like that.
He tells her, you go to bed, I
am sitting here.
The mother told me they didn't
see anything, but they could
hear the fighting noise.
Ali: What sort of care are you
able to provide to these
children, and what has the
fallout been from their
experience of these traumatic
events?
Arif Noor: I recently visited
several of our field locations.
Where our teams are supra---
where our teams are providing
the support to children and
their families, and we came
across one child who just did
not speak for the first couple
of weeks, but later on by our
team started engaging with the
child and gradually the child
started speaking up, and now
they are talking to their
friends and caregivers.
These are the kinds of trauma
that children have had to go
through and our teams then
consistently work with them to
make sure that they are able to
reintegrate, come back to a
semblance of normal life.
It is far from that, because
many children want to go back to
their homes, so arrangements
need to be made so that they can
get back to their normal lives.
Ali: There was recently a
pledging conference in which
wealthy nations pledged
donations to help Sudan rebuild,
and those numbers fell well
short of what's projected as the
total needed to rebuild the
country following this violence.
What more does the international
community need to do, and is
there a role that the Sudanese
government itself needs to step
up and provide?
Arif Noor: Yeah, I think the
international community needs to
come together to assist the
warring factions in the country
to come to some sort of a
settled situation where peace
can return to the country.
The biggest barrier for the time
being is the ongoing violence.
In addition, the bureaucratic
impediments which are there for
the humanitarian community even
before the conflict, if those
can be eased down a little bit
to make sure that the
humanitarian community is able
to reach to the people in need.
All of these things can help
make sure that we are able to
reach out to these people
swiftly and support them.
Ali: Dr. Noor, Sudan country
director for the humanitarian
group save the children. Thank
you so much for your time.
Arif Noor: Thank you very much.