Apr. 20, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Humanitarian groups active in Sudan report that children there are subject to "unspeakable acts of violence and abuse," Vatican Radio reports.
 
 A new study, entitled Sudan's Children at a Crossroads, offers a grim list of human-rights violations directed against children, including shootings, mutilation, kidnapping, and enforced military service. The report notes the situation is worst in the Darfur province, although conditions still remain difficult in southern Sudan, a region recovering from 20 years of civil war.
 
 Even among children who are not themselves victims of violence, the humanitarian groups observe, there are severe emotional scars resulting from being witness to killings, being displaced from homes, and being subject to extreme economic deprivation.
 
 The situation is all the more appalling, a UNICEF spokesman told Vatican Radio, because there are "no promising signs of a happy conclusion" to the suffering in Sudan.