Arria-formula Meeting on “Safeguarding Education in Sudan: Investing in Peace, Recovery and Stability”
Tomorrow morning (7 August), Somalia will convene an Arria-formula meeting titled “Safeguarding Education in Sudan: Investing in Peace, Recovery and Stability”. The meeting is being co-sponsored by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Liberia. Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman (Somalia) and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed are expected to deliver opening remarks. Briefings are expected from UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Management Hannan Sulieman and Executive Director of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) Lisa Chung Bender.
The meeting will take place from 10 am to 1 pm EST in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber at UN Headquarters and is expected to be webcast on UNTV.
Since hostilities erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a protracted armed conflict resulting in widespread civilian casualties, mass displacement, and acute food and water shortages. Civilians have faced relentless bombardment, widespread sexual violence, and severe restrictions on humanitarian access. As front lines have expanded across multiple regions, healthcare and other essential services have collapsed, famine conditions have been confirmed in several areas, and civilian infrastructure has increasingly been targeted.
The conflict has had a devastating impact on children across Sudan. According to UNICEF, approximately 17.3 million children require humanitarian assistance, while children account for around three in five internally displaced people (IDPs). Food insecurity and malnutrition remain particularly severe in parts of the Darfur and Kordofan regions. UNICEF projects that 4.2 million children will experience acute malnutrition in 2026, including more than 825,000 who are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a 13.5 percent rise from 2025.
The concept note prepared by Somalia for tomorrow’s meeting notes that education has been among the sectors most significantly affected by the conflict. It highlights that the consequences extend beyond immediate learning loss, warning that continued disruption to education risks creating long-term shortages in the skilled workforce needed to restore public institutions, rebuild essential services, and support national recovery. According to the concept note, the meeting is expected to raise awareness of the implications of continued education disruption for child protection, recovery, and sustainable peace; promote greater cooperation among relevant stakeholders to strengthen the protection of education and maintain access to learning during the conflict; and generate practical recommendations to support efforts to safeguard education and Sudan’s long-term recovery.
The concept note proposes several questions to help guide the discussion, including:
- How has the conflict affected children’s access to safe and continuous education, and what are the wider implications for Sudan’s future recovery and long-term stability?
- What practical measures can be taken to better protect schools, students, teachers, and educational personnel?
- How can education contribute to protecting children from recruitment and use by armed groups and other grave violations, and what role can the international community play in supporting these efforts?
Members have organised several meetings in the past year to discuss threats to children’s right to education in a cross-cutting manner. These meetings have included a 24 February Arria-formula meeting convened by Panama that highlighted the role of education in preventing child recruitment and use and a 2 March Council briefing titled “Children, technology, and education in conflict” convened by the US. Additionally, the protection of education was one of the focuses of the most recent annual open debate on children and armed conflict, held on 24 June. Tomorrow’s Arria-formula meeting would be the first occasion where members discuss the issue of education in a specific regional file.
Tomorrow, the briefers and some Council members may highlight the broader impact of the conflict on civilian infrastructure in conflict-affected areas such as the Darfur and the Kordofan regions, including damage to schools, hospitals, water systems, and other essential infrastructure. (For background and more information, see our 25 June and 4 August What’s in Blue stories.)
Many speakers are expected to focus their statements on the effects of the conflict on education. UNICEF has described Sudan as “the world’s largest education emergency”, noting that almost half of Sudan’s school buildings can no longer function as classrooms. A June 2026 update from “Education Cannot Wait”, a global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the UN, noted that more than 12 million children are out of school due to the conflict in Sudan. Schools have been damaged or destroyed during the fighting, while others have been closed, occupied by armed actors, or repurposed as shelters for IDPs, further limiting children’s access to safe and continuous learning. The Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict, dated 16 June and covering developments in 2025, documented 41 attacks on schools in Sudan and four instances of the military use of schools, three of which were attributed to the SAF and one to the RSF.
Sulieman may note that the use of explosive weapons by parties to the conflict in populated areas has been the leading cause of destruction or damage of schools. She and some members might highlight in particular the deleterious effects of drones, which have emerged as a major means of deploying explosive weapons in Sudan. In a 5 July press release, UNICEF reported that at least 330 children had been killed or injured during the first half of the year, with the Darfur and the Kordofan regions recording the highest levels of child casualties. UNICEF also noted that approximately 60 percent of these casualties resulted from drone attacks, highlighting the growing impact of drones and other advanced weaponry on civilians.
Sulieman and Chung Bender are likely to describe the immediate and long-term effects of the disruption of education. They may note that lack of access to education leaves children more vulnerable to numerous risks—including recruitment into armed forces and armed groups, child labour, and trafficking—with girls facing particular risks of child marriage, sexual violence, and other forms of exploitation. Sulieman might stress that the loss of learning facilities also deprives children of crucial safe spaces that help restore a sense of normality and often also serve as an entry point where humanitarians can deliver support to children, including food assistance, health care, and mental health services. Chung Bender might note how disrupted schooling is likely to have adverse effects on Sudan’s future economic trajectory.
The briefers and several Council members are likely to call on the parties to the conflict to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by protecting children and the civilian infrastructure on which they depend, and to stress the need for accountability for violations. Some members may reiterate calls to expand the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which covers the Darfur region, to the rest of Sudan. (The situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC through resolution 1593 in 2005.) Speakers may also urge the parties to engage with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and adopt action plans to end and prevent grave violations against children.
Some Council members may call for the designation of additional individuals and entities responsible for such violations under the Security Council’s 1591 Sudan sanctions regime. Speakers are also likely to emphasise the implementation of resolution 2601 of 29 October 2021 on the protection of education, which underscored the need to safeguard schools and facilitate the continuation of education in situations of armed conflict. They may also underline the need for member states to implement the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental political commitment adopted in 2015 to strengthen the protection of education during armed conflict, which Sudan endorsed in the same year.
Some speakers may note that children all across Sudan should have access to the same nationally recognised examinations. Earlier this year, the RSF announced plans to hold secondary school certificate exams independently in areas under its control. Some national actors have expressed concern that such a move would deepen the educational divide in the country and stressed the need to ensure equal opportunities for all students and prevent the politicisation of the curriculum.
There may be some differences in tone in members’ statements at tomorrow’s meeting. Although most Council members share similar concerns about Sudan’s deteriorating political, security, and humanitarian situation and have called for a ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, respect for IHL and the protection of civilians, divisions persist over questions of accountability. China, Pakistan, and Russia generally place greater emphasis on the sovereignty and authority of the government, which is led by SAF leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while the P3 (France, the UK, and the US) have been more critical of both the SAF and RSF, holding both responsible for atrocities and questioning their role in Sudan’s political future.
