The United Nations warned today (Tuesday) that time is running out for malnourished children in Sudan, calling on the world to “stop turning a blind eye” to the tragedy.
Global food security experts reported that the famine threshold, indicating acute malnutrition, has been crossed in two additional areas of North Darfur: Umm Baru and Karnoi.
Ricardo Pires, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), stated that the situation for children is deteriorating day by day, warning that “time is running out for them.”
Extreme Hunger
In parts of North Darfur, more than half of the children suffer from acute malnutrition, according to Pires during a press conference in Geneva. He explained that “extreme hunger and malnutrition hit children first, the youngest, smallest, and most vulnerable, and this is spreading across Sudan.”
He warned that heat, diarrhea, respiratory infections, limited vaccination coverage, unsafe drinking water, and collapsed health systems are turning treatable diseases into “death sentences for children who are already malnourished.”
He continued: “Access is diminishing, funding is desperately scarce, and the fighting is intensifying… Humanitarian access must be allowed, and the world must stop turning a blind eye to the children of Sudan.”
Since April 2023, the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 11 million, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.
Shible Sahbani, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Sudan, said the country “is facing outbreaks of various epidemics, including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and measles, in addition to malnutrition.” Speaking to reporters, he added that health workers and infrastructure are increasingly in the line of fire.
Emergency Preparedness
Since the outbreak of the war, the WHO has verified 205 attacks on the healthcare sector, resulting in 1,924 deaths. These attacks are becoming deadlier each year; during 2025, 65 attacks resulted in 1,620 deaths, and in the first 40 days of the current year, four attacks have killed 66 people.
Fighting is also intensifying in the Kordofan region (South). Sahbani stated, “We must act proactively, pre-position supplies, and deploy our teams on the ground to be ready for any emergency,” adding, “But all this contingency planning… is just a drop in the ocean.”
Famine is spreading in the Darfur region of western Sudan, UN-backed experts warned last week, as the ongoing war between the army and the RSF has left millions hungry and displaced without aid.
