By WASHINGTON—In her work to amplify African voices and the experts who work on African-related issues, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the House Africa Subcommittee, will focus her next Africa Policy Breakfast on the Lost Boys and Girls and their commitment to South Sudan.
The forum will feature government and academic experts who will discuss the current situation in South Sudan and the role of Lost Boys and Girls in the country’s future. In addition, a panel of Lost Boys and Girls will discuss their journey and the role they can play both in South Sudan and here in the United States as it relates to contributing to the overall foreign policy discussion around the country’s future.
The Second Sudanese Civil War, which took place between 1983 and 2005, took the lives of about 2.5 million people and displaced millions more. Among these refugees were nearly 20,000 young people of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups whom aid workers in refugee camps dubbed the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” As children fled the post-independence violence of South Sudan with Sudan during 2011–13, aid and government workers once again called these refugees “Lost Boys and Girls.” They found refuge around the world; today, approximately 3,800 of these Lost Girls and Boys live in the United States.