In worn-torn Sudan, children’s favorite games have become imitating the sound of warplanes as they pass over their heads, and the crashes of shells exploding around them. So you see them popping balloons, and shouting: “Shell... Shell... Rocket... Let’s go inside before it kills us.”
War turned into a terrifying game in the hands of Sudanese children.
Weapons are a substitute for candy
Children no longer ask their parents for candies, a ball, or even a bicycle. Rather, they want a fighter plane, guns, or a four-wheel-drive armed vehicle...
The scenes of blood flowing before their eyes, the corpses lying on the sides of the roads, and the terrifying sounds of war have all changed their notion of enjoyment.
Five-year-old Mohammad did not ask his father for “chocolate” as usual, but rather he told him to buy a “tank.”
Shocked, the father said: “It is impossible; because tanks are owned by the army only to defend the people.”
The child replied innocently: “Then ask the army to give us one and we will return it to them after the end of the war.”
As for Khadija Hussein’s three sons, their games turned into “imitating the Rapid Support Forces.”
They see these fighters roaming the streets, day and night, carrying their weapons, or riding armed cars.
Old children’s games, or football, do no longer interest Sudan’s kids. Their favorite pastime is now imitating war scenes.
Violence takes over the childhood
Khadija told Asharq Al-Awsat: “My children were kind and gentle. War turned them into violent kids, who fight and can destroy anything, even the furniture in the house.”
Nahid Jabrallah, director of Sima Center, which specializes in combating violence against women and children, said: “Even if the child does not suffer a direct physical injury, the war may cause him a psychological disability, and may make him violent, or lead him into isolation. The psychological impact on children becomes clearer in refugee shelters.”
She added that the presence of children in war zones and fighting harms their psychological stability, while the conditions in displacement centers exacerbate their problems, causing them to suffer psychological distress and a state of panic and terror.
Children in Sudan use the names of war figures to call each other. Those include Al-Burhan and Hemedti. Some of them have become known by these names among their friends in different neighborhoods.
