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Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Apr25/03) Penang, 16 Apr (Kanaga Raja) — As the conflict in Sudan enters its third year, the number of children in need of humanitarian assistance has doubled, from 7.8 million at the start of 2023 to more than 15 million today, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on 15 April. In a news release, UNICEF warned that without urgent action, Sudan’s dire humanitarian crisis could tip into greater catastrophe. Violence by parties against children, hunger and disease are surging. Displacement continues to disrupt lives, access by humanitarian actors to families and funding are shrinking, and the May-October rainy season – which often results in disruptive flooding and a surge in malnutrition and disease – looms, it said. “Two years of violence and displacement have shattered the lives of millions of children across Sudan. Needs continue to outpace humanitarian funding,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “With the rainy season around the corner, children who are already reeling from malnutrition and disease will be harder to reach,” she added. Ms Russell urged the international community to seize this pivotal window for action and step up for Sudan’s children. Sudan is enduring the world’s largest humanitarian and child displacement crises. Half of the more than 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance this year are children, said UNICEF. The conflict has displaced nearly 15 million people within Sudan and across borders. More than half of those displaced are children, and almost one in three are under the age of five, it added. In areas where opportunities to return arise, unexploded ordnance and limited access to essential services put children’s lives at heightened risk. Famine is spreading, vaccination rates are dropping, and about 90 per cent of children are out of school, it said, adding that the situation is being compounded by a deadly combination of interlinked factors. Elaborating on these factors, UNICEF said the number of grave violations against children has surged by 1,000 per cent in two years. While such violations were previously confined to regions such as Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan, the ongoing conflict across the country has led to grave violations being verified in more than half of Sudan’s 18 states, said the UN agency. The most recurrent grave violations verified in Sudan include killing and maiming, abductions of children and attacks on schools and hospitals. The Darfurs, Khartoum, Aljazeera and South Kordofan reported the highest number of grave violations over the last two years, said UNICEF. It also said famine has already taken hold in at least five locations, while five further areas are on the brink of famine, with 17 others at risk. Of particular concern is that with the rainy season approaching, seven of these localities are also vulnerable to flooding – six in the Darfurs and one in North Kordofan. Between 2022 and 2024, around 60 per cent of annual admissions for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) occurred during the rainy season, said UNICEF. If that trend holds, between May and October this year, up to 462,000 children could suffer from SAM, it said. Furthermore, disease outbreaks are also expected to surge. In 2024 alone, 49,000 cholera cases and more than 11,000 cases of dengue fever were reported – 60 per cent affecting mothers and children. These outbreaks are worsened by the effects of the rainy season – including water contamination, poor sanitation, and increased displacement and population movement, said the UN agency. Access by humanitarian actors to children is deteriorating due to the intensity of the conflict and to restrictions or bureaucratic impediments imposed by Government authorities or other armed groups. In 2024, over 60 per cent of UNICEF’s aid deliveries were delayed amid a highly volatile security environment, it noted. Although no missions were cancelled or aborted, these repeated delays disrupted the timely delivery of assistance and hindered access to children in urgent need, it said. UNICEF said that funding for life-saving services is critically low, threatening to halt essential health, nutrition, education and protection programmes for children and families and costing lives. UNICEF is appealing for US$1 billion for its response in Sudan in 2025. The requirements amount to just US$76 per person for the entire year – only US$0.26 per day – to deliver essential support to those in need. However, UNICEF said to date, it has US$266.6 million available for this response, with most rolled over from 2024 and just US$12 million received in 2025. In 2024, UNICEF and its partners provided psychosocial counselling, education, and protection services to 2.7 million children and caregivers in Sudan, reached over 9.8 million children and families with safe drinking water, screened 6.7 million children for malnutrition and provided lifesaving treatment for 422,000 of them. UNICEF said it continues to prioritise life-saving interventions in conflict zones and also supports displaced populations and host communities in safer areas, providing essential services and support. “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,” she added. Earlier, on 14 April, the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and on Violence against Children called on the international community to act urgently to avoid sacrificing a whole generation of Sudanese children in a brutal man-made conflict. “What we have seen this weekend in and around the city of El-Fasher, in Darfur, where more than 100 civilians have been reported killed, including at least 20 children, is the horrifying latest example of what has happened in the last two years,” said the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, and the Special Representative on Violence against Children, Najat Maalla M’jid, in a joint press release. Two years since the hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces started, the country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, they noted. An estimated 24.6 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity – more than half of Sudan’s population – and more than 600,000 endure catastrophic hunger. A dramatic increase in grave violations against children has been verified, especially in the Darfur region, with children being killed and maimed at unprecedented levels, said the Special Representatives. There have been shocking accounts of women and girls being raped, gang-raped, sexually exploited and abducted for sex on a large scale, they added. Attacks on schools and hospitals, water stations, and power plants, including attacks on protected personnel, also continued. The Special Representatives called on all parties to uphold their obligations under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, refrain from using explosive weapons, especially in populated areas, and avoid and minimize harm to children. “Children in Sudan are being robbed of their childhood in front of our eyes. All necessary measures must be taken so that the physical, mental, and emotional trauma they are enduring does not remain irreversible,” they said. “We call on all parties to urgently allow and facilitate the rapid, safe, unhindered, and sustained humanitarian access to conflict-affected populations, including children,” the Special Representatives concluded. A FORGOTTEN CRISIS? Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 15 April said Sudan is facing a severe food security catastrophe. Nearly 30.4 million people – almost two-thirds of the population, including 15.6 million children – require urgent humanitarian assistance. More than half the population is acutely food insecure, with famine already confirmed in multiple areas, said FAO. Agriculture, the main source of food and income for up to 80 percent of the population, is being dismantled by violence, displacement and economic collapse, it added. FAO said that with the lean season nearing and below-average rainfall forecast this year, the window to prevent further deterioration is closing fast. Pointing out that food insecurity has reached historic levels, the UN agency said that conflict continues to rage through Sudan, leaving more than half the population acutely food insecure. Famine conditions have been confirmed in at least five areas, and millions are at immediate risk of famine in the conflict-affected regions of Darfur, Khartoum and Kordofan, it said, adding that this marks the highest level of food insecurity recorded in Sudan’s history. Furthermore, it said children haven’t been spared. According to UNICEF, more than 3.2 million children under the age of five are projected to face acute malnutrition in 2025. Highlighting the challenges associated with limited access, FAO said this crisis is not only about food scarcity – it’s also about access. Markets have been looted, supply chains severed and roads rendered unsafe. Essential items like seeds, fertilizer and fuel are out of reach, and prices have soared. Many families simply cannot access or afford what they need to survive, it added. FAO also said Sudan’s agriculture sector is under growing strain as the ongoing conflict continues to disrupt key production areas. “Farmers have been displaced and forced to leave their lands, and access to production inputs and safe access to farmland is becoming increasingly challenging with each passing day.” This disruption not only jeopardizes the livelihoods of rural communities but also poses a serious threat to the country’s overall crop production and food security, said FAO. While other crises dominate headlines, Sudan’s descent into famine continues largely out of sight. In 2024, only 37 percent of the requested funding was received, it pointed out. Now in 2025, with humanitarian budgets tightening, the outlook remains deeply uncertain. This level of support falls dangerously short in a country where one in two people are acutely food insecure, FAO warned. With famine confirmed in at least five areas and millions more at risk, far more must be done to ensure the world doesn’t look away and that families aren’t left to face this crisis alone, it said. FAO said in 2025, it plans to reach 14.2 million people with time-critical assistance across Sudan. It urgently seeks US$156.7 million to bolster food production, protect the livestock and help the agriculture sector recover before conflict destroys the gains sown by generations. +
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