Education in North Darfur has all but collapsed, leaving a generation of children without classrooms, teachers or hope for the future.
Since fighting erupted in April 2023, nearly eight million Sudanese children have been pushed out of school, trapped in what aid groups describe as a silent education emergency.
Schools reduced to rubble
In Saraf Omra, home to around 300,000 people, schools have remained closed for three straight years as violence continues unabated.
Across the rural administrative units of Kutum, school buildings stand abandoned and damaged, stark symbols of a basic right slipping away.
The crisis deepened in 2024 when heavy floods swept through the region, destroying already weakened structures scarred by shelling and gunfire.
Teachers unpaid, students displaced
Teachers have gone without salaries for more than two years, forcing many to leave the profession as political disputes freeze what little income they had.
A government attempt to reopen schools last November proved largely symbolic, with empty classrooms, missing textbooks and no staff to teach.
With few alternatives, many families have pulled their children out of education entirely, sending them to work in markets or enrolling them in Quranic schools for shelter and instruction.
A generation at risk
The Darfur Victims Support Organization warns that the prolonged shutdown of education is driving a rise in child labor and entrenching long-term illiteracy.
Without urgent international support, the group says, North Darfur risks losing an entire generation to a conflict that has already stolen too much.
