UN Warns Children in Darfur Face Extreme Hunger Crisis

Five million children in Sudan’s Darfur region are facing extreme deprivation, the United Nations children’s agency said on Tuesday, issuing an urgent warning over deteriorating conditions as the country’s civil war enters its fourth year.

The warning, known as a “Child Alert”, is rarely used by UNICEF and signals that a crisis has reached a critical threshold. It is the first time the agency has issued such an alert for Darfur in 20 years.

“Children are at a breaking point across the region, childhood is again defined by fear, by loss. Homes have been burned, schools and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, speaking from Port Sudan via video link.

UN Warns Children in Darfur Face Extreme Hunger Crisis

FILE PHOTO: SENSITIVE MATERIAL. THIS IMAGE MAY OFFEND OR DISTURB Saddam Najwa, a malnourished, 17-month-old internally displaced child reaches out for a cup of water at the paediatric ward of the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, near Kauda, within the Sudan’s People Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) controlled area of the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, Sudan June 25, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo

“Children are bearing the heaviest weight of the war in Darfur, children are being killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes and pushed into extreme hunger, disease and trauma,” he added.

The Darfur region in western Sudan has been a central theatre of violence in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023. The area has also been marked by ethnically charged killings and mass displacement.

Darfur previously witnessed major atrocities during a conflict that escalated in 2003, when rebels rose against Sudan’s government, which responded with Arab militias.

Five million children in Sudan’s Darfur region are facing extreme deprivation, the United Nations children’s agency said on Tuesday, issuing an urgent warning over deteriorating conditions as the country’s civil war enters its fourth year.The warning, known as a “Child Alert”, is rarely used by UNICEF and signals that a crisis has reached a critical threshold. It is the first time the agency has issued such an alert for Darfur in 20 years. “Children are at a breaking point across the region, childhood is again defined by fear, by loss. Homes have been burned, schools and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, speaking from Port Sudan via video link. “Children are bearing the heaviest weight of the war in Darfur, children are being killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes and pushed into extreme hunger, disease and trauma,” he added. The Darfur region in western Sudan has been a central theatre of violence in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023. The area has also been marked by ethnically charged killings and mass displacement. Darfur previously witnessed major atrocities during a conflict that escalated in 2003, when rebels rose against Sudan’s government, which responded with Arab militias. UNICEF said the current crisis is unfolding with significantly less global attention than past conflicts in the region, despite worsening conditions and limited funding. The agency’s humanitarian appeal for Sudan this year is only 16% funded. Across Sudan, at least 160 children were reported killed and 85 injured in the first three months of 2026, a sharp increase compared with the same period last year, UNICEF said. The worst impacts have been recorded in the long-besieged city of al-Fashir, where at least 1,300 children have been killed or maimed since April 2024. UNICEF also reported cases of sexual violence, abductions, and recruitment of children by armed groups. In addition, acute malnutrition has reached famine levels in two more areas of North Darfur, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The agency warned that without increased international attention and funding, the situation for children in Darfur is likely to deteriorate further.

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese refugees from Darfur walk amidst a sandstorm at the Touloum refugee camp, amid ongoing conflict in their country, on the outskirts of the town of Iriba in Wadi Fira province, eastern Chad, November 30, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

UNICEF said the current crisis is unfolding with significantly less global attention than past conflicts in the region, despite worsening conditions and limited funding. The agency’s humanitarian appeal for Sudan this year is only 16% funded.

Across Sudan, at least 160 children were reported killed and 85 injured in the first three months of 2026, a sharp increase compared with the same period last year, UNICEF said.

The worst impacts have been recorded in the long-besieged city of al-Fashir, where at least 1,300 children have been killed or maimed since April 2024. UNICEF also reported cases of sexual violence, abductions, and recruitment of children by armed groups.

FILE PHOTO: People fleeing the violence in West Darfur, cross the border into Adre, Chad, August 4, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo

In addition, acute malnutrition has reached famine levels in two more areas of North Darfur, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The agency warned that without increased international attention and funding, the situation for children in Darfur is likely to deteriorate further.