Sudan: Number of children with acute malnutrition rises 46% to 40,000 - UNICEF

At least 40,000 children have been admitted to receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur, Sudan, alone this year, 46% more than in the same period in 2024, the UN revealed.

According to figures from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), "the brutal civil war in Sudan is pushing more children to the brink of starvation," an extreme state of malnutrition and prolonged weakness, UNICEF warned, also noting that malnutrition rates have exceeded emergency levels established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in nine of the 13 localities in Darfur.

"The children of Darfur are suffering from hunger due to the conflict and are deprived of the aid that could save them; this is a decisive moment in which the lives of children depend on the world's decision to act or not," said UNICEF representative in the country, Sheldon Yett, quoted by the Europa Press news agency.

The situation in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is "particularly catastrophic", as access to humanitarian aid has been virtually cut off since April 2023, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) surrounded the city, the last one controlled by government forces in the region.

Although UNICEF managed to deliver a shipment of additional supplies to El Fasher earlier this year, subsequent attempts to send more aid have also been thwarted, worsening a crisis that has caused mass displacement in the area and is not limited to Darfur.

Thus, for example, admissions for severe acute malnutrition increased by 683% in Al Jazirah, 174% in Khartoum and 70% in North Kordofan, according to data from this United Nations agency.

In this context, the lean season between harvests, cholera outbreaks, measles cases and the collapse of health services "are further worsening the crisis, putting vulnerable children at even greater risk", and is also "rapidly increasing the risk of mass child mortality, especially in areas already approaching the brink of famine", lamented UNICEF.

The agency called on all parties on the ground to allow "unhindered humanitarian access" to the most affected areas and called on its international allies to demand "renewal of diplomatic pressure from all parties to cease hostilities," while also requesting "more vital funds to maintain and expand essential services" in the country, according to Europa Press.

Sudan plunged into a devastating war in April 2023 due to disagreements over the process of integrating the RSF into the armed forces, which derailed the transition initiated after the overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019, causing a severe humanitarian crisis and the largest displacement crisis in the world.