Lost Boys of Sudan

School children in Kakuma camp, Kenya

The Lost Boys of Sudan refers to a group of over 20,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1987–2005). Two million were killed and others were severely affected by the conflict.[1] The term was used by healthcare workers in the refugee camps and may have been derived from the children's story of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.[2] The term was also extended to refer to children who fled the post-independence violence in South Sudan in 2011–2013.[3][4]

The boys embarked on treacherous journeys to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya where thousands were sheltered for several years. Some of the Lost Boys were offered shelter and residence in the United States through official resettlement programs.[5]

  1. ^ Lost Boys of Sudan Archived 2013-12-09 at the Wayback Machine, official IRC website.
  2. ^ "Who are the Lost Boys". The Lost Boys of Sudan in Chicago. BCDEnterprises. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  3. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey (30 June 2012). "New Wave of 'Lost Boys' Flee Sudan's Lingering War". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  4. ^ Simon Tisdall (5 July 2013). "Fears of a new Darfur as refugees are caught in brute force on Sudan's border". The Guardian. guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Resettlement in the United States". UNHCR. Retrieved 2022-07-11.