Sudanese women and children fleeing the al-Jazira state stand next to their belongings near the eastern city of Gedaref on November 2, 2024. For the Children of Africa, languishing in a seemingly endless loop of war, violence and displacement, the bliss and beauty of childhood has been lost, says the writer. Picture: AFP
By Kim Heller
THE future lies in Africa. Home to the world’s youngest population, the horizon is brimming with opportunity. But for the children of Africa, the outlook is bleak. War and conflict are robbing them of their childhoods. And potentially, their futures.
In the Greatest Love of All, Whitney Houston, sings, “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.”
For the Children of Africa, languishing in a seemingly endless loop of war, violence and displacement, the bliss and beauty of childhood has been lost. Few can enjoy the warm beams of African sunlight or dance with abandon and innocence, in the cool streams of Africa. In a wreck of collateral damage, the treasured children of Africa have been forsaken. It is a tragic betrayal of a generation of children whose daily lessons are of survival rather than of scholarly bliss.
The Norwegian Refugee Council reported in mid-2024 that over fourteen thousand schools closed down in twenty-four African countries due to war and conflict. Countries especially impacted by school closures due to war, insurgency, and terrorist activity, included Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. It is estimated that in Sudan, some eighteen million children are out of school due to the prolonged war in the country. In the DRC, over 1,400 schools shut down in 2024, disrupting the schooling of over 500,000 students.
The Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Yasmin Sherif, released a statement on the Day of the African Child, on 16 June 2024. “As we speak, millions of crisis-affected girls and boys across the African continent are being denied their human right to a quality education. In the absence of financial means to provide a quality education, or still suffering the brunt of protracted conflicts, Africa’s children do not enjoy the same rights as the rest of us. As an immediate consequence, girls are forced into child marriage, boys are recruited into armed groups, millions of children are hungry, and millions more are illiterate. Few of them have any means to move beyond such an existence without receiving an inclusive and continuous quality education.”
It is in the abyss of war that children’s rights fall. Especially for the girl child, who is most vulnerable to exploitation and gender violence. Under the cover of darkness, unseen and unheard, there is often no protection for children, who are exposed to many great ills, including health risks. During the 2024 outbreak of Mpox in DRC, for instance, there were many child victims.
Children, forced to flee their homes which had turned into warzones, are plunged into the terrifying transience of displacement rather than ascending the rungs of schooling, towards skill development and career pathing. It is from this gulf of disruption and desperation that militia groups often pluck out children to join their military battles. Rather than being scholars, thousands are forced to be child soldiers. The plight of child combatants is increasing, especially in DRC and Sudan.
School infrastructure, if not the ruinous remains of war, is being used by warring groups as military garrisons. With spates of abductions of scholars in Nigeria, attending school can be a deadly pursuit. In the turbulent Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, more than two hundred schools have been rendered dysfunctional due to ongoing insurgency.
Education, an essential building block of any nation, is slowly but surely being reduced to the rubble of warfare, in many African nations. While the African Union has worked hand in hand with educational NGOs to protect places of education from conflict, war knows no restraint and the AU’s Safe Schools Declaration has yet to be effectively implemented.
At its Annual Humanitarian Symposium held in November 2024, the AU estimated that forty-five million children in Africa are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance due to armed conflict, climate change, economic instability, and public health challenges.
The AU’s African Union Commissioner of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Minata Samate Cessouma, said, “In the face of these harsh realities, it is imperative to remember that children do not choose to be born in a context of conflict or crisis. They must not be left behind in our humanitarian efforts. The African Union, in partnership with its Member States and partners, is committed to ensuring not only the protection of these children and adolescents but also to providing them with the opportunities they need to thrive despite the challenges they face.”
Wilson Almeida Adão, Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), stressed the need for “robust and responsive interventions that address family tracing and social reintegration, rehabilitation and trauma counselling.”
He stated, “Let us remember that the figures are more than numbers and the experiences are more than stories. They represent the lived realities of children and adolescents. Acknowledging the need for specialised care, assistance, guidance, and education to enable children and adolescents to fully develop their inherent potential in a peaceful and conflict-free environment, let us commit ourselves to discourse rooted in child rights-based and child-centred approaches. Let us question whether our existing child protection systems are truly fit for purpose.”
H.E. Mahlaba Mamba, Eswatini's Permanent Representative to the African Union, said, “It is our moral responsibility to ensure that these young lives are protected and given the opportunity they deserve. By addressing the root causes of these crises and providing appropriate cultural support, we can create an environment that fosters their growth, resilience, and development.”
Last year, UNICEF warned that the disruption of education threatens “the development of Africa’s future generations.”
War and conflict exacerbate economic hardship and poverty levels as government resources for much-needed socio-economic and nation-building projects are redirected to countering and managing the ravages and aftershocks of war and conflict. War is an expensive business. It sucks the social sustenance from the populace, turning nations into stagnant and disabled zones, hijacking growth, and development. Educational and skill deficits will mean a greater reliance on foreign countries for growth and development. War kills vital development and prosperity.
Fed on the trauma and toxicity of war, displacement and violence, this generation of African children is unlikely to flourish into healthy adults who can positively shape a healthy, peaceful, and prosperous society. War is effectively manufacturing a lost generation. And with it, snuffing out the future well-being and development potential of the Continent.
* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa.
** The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African.