Rights groups and opposition figures are urging an investigation into alleged child recruitment by forces aligned with Sudan’s Islamist networks, amid a surge in disappearances and reports of minors on front lines.
Alaa El-Din Nugud, spokesperson for the Sudan Founding Alliance (Tasis), told Erm News that Islamists and allied militias—including the Sudan Shield—continue to enlist minors, citing recent battles in Kordofan where “a large number of under-18s” were detained and questioned. He said families are pressured to provide a recruit “regardless of age,” exploiting wartime hardship with threats and coercion.
Nugud added that some children are abducted and moved through camps before deployment, claiming leaked videos show boys in uniform. He said the practices violate international treaties on the use of child soldiers and amount to enforced disappearances.
Legal and human rights experts link the spike in missing children to wartime poverty, weak oversight and the activities of human- and organ-trafficking networks. They say the overall security collapse has created conditions for abuse and impunity.
Legal specialist Noon Kashkoush told Erem News that monitoring of detention sites found minors held with adults, breaching child-protection standards. She said videos from Kordofan point to children fighting alongside militias such as the Sudan Shield Brigades—aligned with forces based in Port Sudan—and the Al-Baraa Ibn Malik Brigades.
Kashkoush called for a formal probe and urged the renewal of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan’s mandate in early October, saying it is the only authorized body able to investigate the allegations.
