Sudan is grappling with a worsening child hunger crisis, as new data from UNICEF released on Thursday showed a shocking 46% rise in the number of children treated for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) across the five Darfur states from January to May 2025, compared to the same period last year.
UNICEF urgently called for immediate and unconditional humanitarian access to affected regions, particularly in Darfur and the Kordofans, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The organization also appealed to the international community to intensify diplomatic efforts to secure a cessation of hostilities and to provide at least $200 million in additional emergency funding this year to sustain and expand critical nutrition and health services.
“Children in Darfur are being starved by conflict and cut off from the very aid that could save them,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan. “This is a moment of truth. Children’s lives depend on whether the world chooses to act or look away.”
In North Darfur alone, more than 40,000 children have been admitted for treatment so far this year, twice the number recorded in early 2024, with the crisis worsening amid ongoing violence and aid blockades.
The situation has become especially dire in conflict-stricken North Darfur, where intense fighting, displacement, and the collapse of health services have left thousands of children without access to food, water, or medical care. The region is rapidly approaching famine conditions, with new SMART nutrition surveys indicating that nine out of thirteen localities across Darfur now exceed the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold for acute malnutrition.
The crisis, however, is not confined to Darfur. Severe malnutrition is spreading across Sudan, with SAM admissions up 70 percent in North Kordofan, 174 percent in Khartoum State, and a staggering 683 percent in Al Jazirah. While the increases in some areas partly reflect improved access to health centers due to relative calm, the overall trend signals a nationwide escalation in child malnutrition during Sudan’s lean season—the period between harvests when food becomes scarcest.
In North Darfur, the ongoing siege of Al Fasher and the destruction of the Zamzam displacement camp have left entire communities cut off from humanitarian aid. Hospitals have been bombed, roads blocked, and aid convoys attacked and looted. In April, violence at Zamzam camp drove nearly 400,000 people to flee, many of them walking up to 70 kilometers across arid terrain to reach the town of Tawila. There, over 500,000 displaced people are now struggling to survive with minimal access to shelter, clean water, and food.
Supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF)—the most effective treatment for SAM—have been exhausted in Al Fasher. Health facilities in and around Zamzam have shut down, and cholera outbreaks, measles infections, and poor sanitation are compounding the crisis. The last remaining referral hospital in Al Fasher has come under repeated attack, and most other clinics have closed due to insecurity or lack of supplies. In displacement sites like Tawila, overcrowding and lack of sanitation are raising fears of further disease outbreaks, including polio and waterborne illnesses.
