Sudanese youth are being dragged into war, fuelling hunger. [Picture: Democracy In Africa]
Malnutrition, hunger and desperation are common features of life in Sudan’s Darfur region amidst a civil war there. Rival factions of the country’s military government have been enlisting youth, according to a political commentator.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war since April 2023, have brought the country to the brink. In Darfur, graveyards are rapidly expanding to make room for civilians who have succumbed to malnutrition and disease.
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, Sudanese commentator Dr. Abdul-Karim Elgoni highlighted the issue of hunger faced by civilians in the wake of the civil war.
Crop farmers were hesitant to sow seeds due to insecurity, he said. “People felt that even if [they] plant, [they] will not be here to harvest.”
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Youth dragged into war
While the war raged on, he said, “the most devastating thing is the participation of the youth in the war itself”. He said their recruitment meant there were less hands to cultivate farms and sustain food production.
“Those parties are involving youth in the fighting and there are no able hands to cultivate even the land where there is security and this has created a lot of problems for the Sudanese,” he explained.
According to the Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), some three quarters of a million people in Sudan are expected to face food shortages by September.
