{"id":27073,"date":"2025-12-04T21:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=27073"},"modified":"2025-12-04T21:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:40:19","slug":"sudan-slave-market-and-modern-child-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=27073","title":{"rendered":"Sudan: Slave market and modern child labour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overshadowed in the news and on the international community’s radar by the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, Sudan, a country of 50.5 million people, has been mired in a civil war for nearly 32 months, characterized by proxy warfare and one of the largest ongoing humanitarian disasters on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is already the epicenter of the world’s largest displacement of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN, more than 6.5 million minors have been forced to flee their homes since the first clashes between the military junta and its former allies, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), broke out in April 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many children have been separated from their families, orphaned by at least one parent and, at best, have managed to find shelter in camps, dependent on underfunded international humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others, severely injured, do not make it that far, according to humanitarian organizations and testimonies from survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some starve or die of thirst on the road. Both warring sides are accused of war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But especially after the recent occupation of the western part of Sudan by the RSF, thus dividing the northeastern African country in two, reports of atrocities have taken on nightmarish proportions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key point of reference is the gold-rich Darfur, in the west, where everything indicates that another genocide is underway – the second in the region in the 21st century – against the minority, non-Arab local population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minors, even small children, have been subjected to sexual violence. The number of those who have been kidnapped remains unknown. The girls as sex slaves – rumors now report that a slave market has even opened west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The kidnapped boys are intended to be soldiers or workers in the gold mines.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Human trafficking, child recruitment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the nightmare in Sudan, the latest report by UN human rights experts paints a grim picture of the crisis that has been unfolding for two and a half years before the eyes of the entire world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is overwhelming evidence that women and children belonging to non-Arab communities in North Darfur have been targeted and raped on the basis of ethnicity,\u201d they stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They express deep concern about reports of human trafficking in and around El Fasher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They speak of \u201ca pattern of arbitrary detention and forced marriage of women and children for sexual exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe exercise of ownership over victims in this context is indicative of sexual slavery,\u201d they observe. They cite information about the trafficking of women and girls, not only in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sexual violence is widespread in many parts of Sudan, they explain. They warn of the increasing risks faced by women and unaccompanied children in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the more so when it is estimated that 27% of displaced minors are under the age of five. Already more than two million little innocent souls\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInternally displaced women and girls are among those trafficked for sexual slavery and other forms of sexual exploitation. The recruitment and use of children by armed groups is also on the rise,\u201d the experts underline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since October 2023, the UN has reported that RSF has been recruiting vulnerable children, especially those who are poor or unaccompanied. Two years later, they are now acting in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In videos that circulated online last October, during the capture of El Fasher by paramilitary forces, child soldiers celebrate in front of the camera in panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They chase villagers as if they were game. At least one of them is clearly recorded executing an unarmed man in cold blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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