The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that 15 million boys and girls require support, up from 7.8 million at the start of 2023 – the year fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and former ally the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
UNICEF said violence by warring parties against children, hunger and disease are surging, while displacement continues to disrupt lives. This is happening as both humanitarian access and funding are shrinking and as the rainy season approaches in May.
Step up support
“With the rainy season around the corner, children who are already reeling from malnutrition and disease will be harder to reach,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
She urged the international community “to seize this pivotal window for action and step up for Sudan’s children.”
Sudan is currently the world’s largest humanitarian and child displacement crises. More than 30 million people overall need humanitarian assistance this year.
Young lives uprooted
The conflict has forced 12.4 million people to flee their homes and seek safety either elsewhere in Sudan or across the border. More than half are children, with nearly a third under the age of five. UNICEF noted that in areas where people can return, unexploded ordnance and limited access to essential services put children’s lives at heightened risk. Meanwhile, famine is spreading, vaccination rates are dropping, and about 90 per cent of children are out of school.
The situation is being compounded by a deadly combination of interlinked factors, such as a ten-fold surge in the number of grave violations against children, namely killing and maiming; abduction; recruitment and use in hostilities; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; and the denial of humanitarian access.
While grave violations were previously confined to regions such as Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, incidents have now been verified in more than half of Sudan’s 18 states.
The most recurrent verified grave violations include killing and maiming, abductions and attacks on schools and hospitals, with the highest numbers reported in the Darfurs, Khartoum, Aljazeera and South Kordofan.
Famine and disease
Furthermore, famine has been confirmed in 10 locations, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), with more places at risk. With the rainy season looming, UNICEF warned that some localities are also vulnerable to flooding.
The agency recalled that between 2022 and 2024, around 60 per cent of annual admissions for severe acute malnutrition occurred during the rainy season, meaning that up to 462,000 children could be affected this year if the trend holds.
Disease outbreaks are also expected to surge. Last year, 49,000 cholera cases and more than 11,000 cases of dengue fever were reported, mainly affecting mothers and children.
Outbreaks are worsened by the effects of the rainy season, including water contamination, poor sanitation, and increased displacement and population movement.
Funding shortfall fears
At the same time, humanitarian access to children in Sudan is deteriorating due to the intensity of the conflict and restrictions or bureaucratic impediments, whether by the Government authorities or other armed groups.
Funding for life-saving services is also critically low, putting essential health, nutrition, education and protection programmes at risk.
UNICEF is appealing for $1 billion for its operations in Sudan in 2025, which works out to just $76 per person for the year, or 26 cents per day. Currently, $266.6 million is available, though most of the funding was rolled over from 2024 with just $12 million received this year.
Last year, UNICEF and partners provided psychosocial counselling, education, and protection services to 2.7 million children and caregivers. They also reached nearly 10 million children and families with safe drinking water and screened 6.7 million youngsters for malnutrition, providing lifesaving treatment for 422,000 of them.
“Sudan is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world today, but it is not getting the world’s attention,” said Ms. Russell.
“We cannot abandon the children of Sudan. We have the expertise and the resolve to scale up our support, but we need access and sustained funding. Most of all, children in Sudan need this horrific conflict to end.”
