In the neglected neighborhoods of Cairo, Sudanese children who fled the violence of their country’s three-year civil war are living in a cycle of despair. Surrounded by mounds of rubbish, the stench of raw sewage, and the nightly presence of roaming drug dealers and gangs, these young refugees are struggling to survive. Support workers report that a significant portion of the estimated 400,000 Sudanese child refugees in Egypt are suffering from deep-seated trauma, with between 50% and 70% currently out of school.
Tala, a social worker, spends her days attempting to pull traumatized children back from the brink. She recounts the case of an eight-year-old boy who, haunted by the death of his father in Sudan, became suicidal and prone to violent outbursts. According to Tala, the boy would become hysterical over minor issues, his fear manifesting as anger and a desire to hurt himself or others. Through months of building rapport, she eventually helped him return to education. Similarly, Rajia, a clinical psychologist, notes that these children often reenact the horrors they witnessed during the war, frequently drawing fighter jets or cannons when asked to create art. Without the structure of school, many teenagers have turned to self-harm, with one boy telling his family he saw no escape from his life as a refugee before taking his own life.
The situation is exacerbated by severe cuts to humanitarian funding. Parents are forced to work 10-hour shifts just to afford basic food and rent, leaving their children unsupervised and vulnerable. These children are frequently targeted by criminal elements for exploitation or grooming, lured with promises of money or mobile phones. Many are pushed into child labor in factories and on farms, where they face physical and sexual abuse. Dr. Adam, who treats teenage patients, observes that drugs have become a common escape for those suffering from the trauma of their displacement, often arriving at his clinic with severe injuries from fights or self-inflicted harm.
Safety remains a critical concern for families. Mothers describe living in constant fear, noting that local gangs of Egyptian and Sudanese teenagers, often armed with knives, make it dangerous to venture out after dark. One mother, Miriam, shared how her 14-year-old daughter, Jana, was repeatedly threatened by a gang member and eventually stabbed in the thigh. Despite pleas for assistance from the UNHCR, families like Miriam’s report that they have nowhere else to go due to extreme financial constraints. Another mother, Azza, recently declined a job involving 10-hour shifts, six days a week, because she was afraid to leave her granddaughter alone, even though she knows she will soon need the income to survive.
Adding to this instability is the constant terror of deportation raids. Egyptian police frequently conduct door-to-door operations, detaining refugees and deporting them to Sudan. One mother recounted the agony of seeing her 14-year-old son detained for more than two months before being deported, unaccompanied, to Sudan. As families struggle to survive, the lack of mental healthcare and the absence of a path to education continue to trap this generation in a state of profound hopelessness, with many children telling support workers they see no point in learning because they believe they will never have a future.
