Sudan’s invisible children – born in war with no legal identity

Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing A 17-year-old Sudanese girl holds a young child in her arms with a heavy calm that belies her age and the concerns she has for his future. “This son of mine has no father, no birth certificate and no national number,” Amira, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, tells the BBC. Looking down at him, she speaks slowly as if still trying to grasp the details of what has happened to her since the civil war erupted in Sudan.

She and her family used to live in the eastern neighbourhoods of el-Fasher, a city that came under siege from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been in a brutal power struggle with the military since April 2023. El-Fasher was the army’s last stronghold in the western region of Darfur until it fell to the RSF and allied Arab militias after 18 months last October. For the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the city, it was a nightmare – with constant bombardment, clashes and suffering from a lack of food.

In the end Amira and her family decided to flee early in 2025, desperate to find a safer area. But as they snuck out on a road south-west of the city, she says she was abducted by three armed men from the RSF and held captive. “They blindfolded me and took me to the Tabit area south of el-Fasher. I was locked in a room for two months, and every day one of them raped me in turn,” she recounts in a low voice